A gallery of creative and imaginative street art from Bristol’s Mr Sleven
Instagram: @mr.sle7en
All photographs by Scooj
Mr Sleven
Tag: Mr Sleven
5268. Purdown (55)
When I saw this piece appear on Mr Sleven’t Instagram feed, I decided to get up to Purdown at the first possible opportunity before it got tagged or damaged by the small herd of goats that live in the derelict anti-aircraft gun emplacement that protected Bristol during WWII.
The cartoon doodle style piece is beautifully executed, and the white/grey piece stands out so well of the deep, rich red. There is a crispness and originality that I find really compelling, and if I am honest, I’d love to have something like this hanging on my wall (less the concrete, of course). A lovely piece and great to see after quite a long absence from Mr Sleven.
4988. Purdown (52)
It is a rare thing indeed to find a Mr Steven piece these days, so it was extra pleasing to see this small burner up at Purdown. Although only a small piece, it is really nicely finished, and stands out from the crowd in this unusual Bristol spot.
The letters ‘Slev’ are delineated by the lovely green 3D drop shadow, with a pink trim border. The fills are rather lovely, with three horizontal colour layers and an array of complementary spots. This is a lovely ‘quick one’ from Mr Sleven, and I hope to see more from him soon.
3823. St Werburghs tunnel (247)
This is a rather nice little three-way collaboration from Mr Sleven, The cat came back and Pekoe, down in the tunnel, which I think was a celebration of Mr Sleven’s birthday. I love it that in the street/graffiti art world it is common to mark people’s birthdays with a paint jam – what a great way to celebrate.
On the left is a rather tidy little chrome throwie by Mr Sleven spelling out SLEV. While I like hie writing, I think I prefer his rather weird and wonderful character pieces, which makes me wonder whether I have enough to do a gallery of his work… I might just have.
To the right is yet another lovely portrait from the queen of portraits, Pekoe. The yellow face is perfectly offset by the red cheeks, lips and hair. A real stunner. Hitching a ride on the big hair is a little cat protesting for peace from The cat came back. All in all a lovely little celebratory collaboration.
3532. Bragg’s Lane (2)
Bragg’s Lane is a little bit off the main drag of street art spots, and although there are pieces here from time to time, I can’t think of quite such a good ‘gallery’ as there is at present. This is a fine contribution from Mr Klue and Mr Sleven, who often collaborate and who were very busy in the tunnel at the back end of last year.
I’m not entirely clear when this collaboration was painted, but it is looking bright an clean and is I tagged, so it must be relatively new. Mr Klue provides the foundation for the collaboration with his inimitable abstract style in his preferred purple and pink tones with dashes of yellow. One of his key motifs, the mad hatter’s hat, makes a welcome appearance to the right of the piece.
Mr Sleven has made great use of the shutter door to frame his bright and vibrant piece. The face appears to be that of a very unscary monster with three eyes and a mouth displaying four gold teeth spelling out LOVE. The multicoloured skin of the monster is stitched together a la Frankenstein’s monster, and the artist has spelled out his name using the same stitch technique. This is a fine collaboration and well worth seeking out, but it is a bugger for parking.
3401. St Werburghs tunnel (216)
Holiday breaks are good for so many reasons, especially the opportunity to free up some time to do the things we love. There has been a big upsurge in productivity of street/graffiti art over the Christmas period in Bristol and my photograph folder for December is heaving. Having only seen a few pieces this year from Mr Sleven and Mr Klue, it was great to see this collaboration, the second in as many weeks from this pair in the St Werburghs tunnel.
These two create fully integrated collaborations, which I love, where their art becomes a synthesis of their styles, rather than two adjacent pieces in similar colour schemes. The Grinch has made a lot of appearances on the walls of Bristol this year, perhaps as a conscious/unconscious reference to COVID-19 spoiling things a bit. Here, Mr Sleven’s nicely drawn Grinch is emerging from a wispy Mr Klue atmosphere. This is a fine piece and there is a nice reference to COM.64 – the crew that these two belong to.
3345. St Werburghs tunnel (211)
I managed to catch up very briefly with Mr Klue as he and Mr Sleven were just finishing off this new piece in St Werburghs tunnel. The turnover of art in this end spot is relatively high because it has a good amount of daylight, and it is always worth photographing something new, because you just can’t be sure how long it will last.
This is a true collaboration with the work and styles of both artists blending well together. The character with a TV head and outstretched arms is by Mr Sleven and the wispy orange and red abstract patterning by Mr Klue. These two collaborate quite often together and along with DNT and others form part of COM.64.
The two styles come together really well in this piece and the colours are striking. I like this one a lot.
3327. Brunel Way bridge (73)
I have to confess that when I photographed this piece I couldn’t work out who it was by and it wasn’t until I saw Paul H’s Instagram post that I found out, and then of course it was blindingly obvious. It is funny how sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees. It is of course by Mr Sleven.
Mr Sleven, Brunel Way, Bristol, November 2020The piece is entitled ‘the devil wears khakis’ and is a fairly dark portrayal of a demon or the devil. I love the way the piece kind of blends into its surroundings and the end spot on this concrete wall is the perfect space for it. Mr Sleven conveys a strong sense of menace and horror – a fine piece.
2640. St Werburghs tunnel (122)
Right in the middle of St Werburghs tunnel, you can tell from the very orange lighting, is this rather nice piece from Mr Sleven. I’m not sure if it is disguised writing or simply a design. I’d like to think it says Sleven, but I don’t quite see it. Hot off the Press – Mr Sleven posted an Instagram design of this piece this morning… it is a skull.
I don’t see too much of his work around the place these days. In fact I think the last one I saw was ages ago in Moon Street. It was a great piece that remained for a considerable time. I doubt this one will be afforded the same courtesy. I think the long run of wet weather makes the tunnel a much more attractive venue for graffiti artists at the moment and turnover is high.
2141. M32 roundabout J3 (137)
Great to see this amazing collaboration between Pekoe and Mr Sleven lurking to the far left of one of the walls of the M32 roundabout. I’m not sure if I have seen a collaboration between these two before, although I do know they paint together quite a lot.
The green portrait on the left is by the wonderful Pekoe and resembles a rather attractive Shrek-type ogre, or is it the empath from Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Neither probably, but a striking image nonetheless. Great hair.
The writing by Mr Sleven is in a really unusual style, appearing almost as if it is organic in some way. The letters spell out SLEV, wityh the ‘V’ being a heart. Is this love between the two artists? I have no idea, but this is a neat collaboration brought together nicely with the green colour shared between both halves.
Natural adventures 