In the last few months, Slakarts has had a bit of a renaissance and what fun it has been. His familiar portrait pieces have been given more body and depth and are all the better for it.
This is a perfect example of his newer work, where the character is lifted off the wall rather than being flat. Depth is an important development in street art work, and Slakarts is achieving it in bucket loads at the moment. An all round lovely piece.
It feels to me like Slakarts is taking his art to a new level and his recent pieces have shown real dynamism and creativity. This recent piece from the M32 cycle path, works on his stylised character portrait, but presents it in an entirely new way.
The piece is made up of two portraits facing one another in subdues grey colours, with some lighter highlights that express freedom and confidence in his work. Contrast this with one of his recent colourful pieces and you see an artist whose range is wide and skills are of the highest order. A lovely ephemeral piece.
I think that this might be one of my favourite Slakarts pieces to date. The slightly more sophisticated overall design and inclusion of great colours (reminiscent of Kleiner Shames’ preferred palette) delivers a truly pleasing work. Perhaps he was inspired while painting alongside Decay… and who wouldn’t be?
The stylised portrait has been painted with great care, and the lines are sharp and fills solid. There are some clever elements and some fabulous fragmentation of elements, creating something of a cubist look to the piece. A beautiful piece beautifully finished.
Ooh! Creative, imaginative and lots of fun, this wonderful piece from Slakarts down in Cumberland Basin is an elaborate expansion on his regular face template. In this piece, Slakarts is telling much more of a story than simply painting up his mega-tag that we see quite a lot of in the city.
A man, a flower and a dog are the subjects of this lovely piece, and the confidence and boldness ooze out of the wall. Slakarts’ work is typified by the thick outlines and solid fills that present as clean and tidy work. There are some similarities in this work and that of Roo, which is a compliment indeed. More sophisticated stuff from Slakarts to come.
It is too easy to forget that nearly all of the artists who decorate the streets of Bristol have jobs, and that they have to fit in the painting around their work and families etc. For this reason, many artists will have peaks and troughs in activity. Slakarts, it would seem has recently emerged from one of those troughs and is firing on all cylinders with some marvellous work.
This piece on the M32 is a beautiful example of his work and is full of life and dynamism. Slakarts likes to work with big bold shapes and strong solid fills, and in this piece he has sprinkled in some additional decorative circles and dots. A lovely confident piece and another in his superb portfolio of work. More on the way.
What a fabulous treat this piece was. I haven’t seen anything from Nugmoose for a while, and certainly never in the tunnel at St Werburghs. Obviously encouraged by collaboration partner Slakarts, no stranger to this spot, the pair have produced this wonderful dual piece.
On the left is a curious (as always) alien maggot kind of creature with some alien hieroglyphs sitting on a cloud. The whole thing is a little weird, but Nugmoose does weird really well. To the right is Slakart’s contribution which is also a little odd, but tells a rather nice story. It looks to me as if an alien space ship is dropping rain down on the character, who is holding hands(tentacle) with the alien. Imaginative fun from this creative pairing.
Slakarts is not only a talented street artist, but he is also a really decent bloke. I was walking through the tunnel a couple of weeks back, and he cycled past me, and then stopped to say hello. After a very brief chat, he said he had to dash, but I was rather touched that he had bothered to stop at all.
This piece next to the M32 Spot is a rather interesting take on his faces, and with the tooth missing has the appearance of a punk granny. It certainly made me smile when I saw it, although I have seen another like it elsewhere. Slakarts keeps churning out his very distinct style of portraits, and Bristol is all the better for them.
Sometimes I am a goofy idiot, I don’t think properly in the excitement of the moment, and only upon reflection do I notice my stupidity. I took these pictures thinking that it was a collaboration between Maesyhook and Slakarts, when it was in fact a collaboration but between Stivs (to the left, off picture) and Maesyhook. No matter. This not a collaboration, but rather two pieces that are adjacent to one another.
On the left (and associated with a Stivs piece further left) is another delightful piece from newcomer to Bristol walls Maesyhook. Her kawaii pieces are becoming a familiar site in the popular spots around the city, and here she has painted a rather cute sheep wearing a T-shirt with ‘I ❤️ Bru’ on the front. I’m not sure what or who Bru is, but it looks nice.
To the right of the sheep in this non-collaboration is a mega tag piece from Slakarts who seems to be playing with very feint blue outlines at the moment. Is he out of black? Or is this a new thing? I can’t say I like it too much, as it doesn’t provide enough definition and looks a bit washed out. Get back to the stronger colours is my advice. It is still always nice to see his work though.
Wow, another epic piece from four of Bristol’s brightest young artists, Nugmoose, Sage, Slakarts and Mudra. I’m not too sure that this lot have a crew name sorted out, but it is definitely time they got their act together.
First up is another bold and unusual alien piece from Nugmoose in which there is something mysterious going on with the roots of a plant entering the character’s ear via a jar with alien writing on it. Imaginative and creative.
In the middle of the collaboration is some lovely writing from Sage adjacent to something rather different from Slakarts. The cartoon-style character resembles a farmer Giles type with a piece of grass dangling from his mouth – more creative stuff.
Finally, the collaboration is rounded off with a delicious blend of writing with a character incorporated into it from Mudra. The eclectic shapes and sizes of letters spell out MUDRA encompassing a Freddie Mercuryesque character complete with moustache and specs. He signs off with his customary @ symbol.
This is a truly creative collaboration from a really decent group of lads, and I can’t wait to see more from them as the year unfolds.
A gallery of outstanding faces from Bristol artist Slakarts.
All photographs by Scooj
Natural adventures 