A controversial wave of sticker street art has sparked heated debate in Bristol, a city recently recognized as one of the world's top destinations to visit, largely due to its vibrant street art scene. Birmingham-based artist Sgt Wilko has generated significant controversy after covering numerous storefronts, phone boxes, walls, and signs throughout the city center and Bedminster area with his handmade artwork stickers.

Last weekend, the mystery artist known as Sgt Wilko arrived in Bristol and spent his time pasting unique artwork across East Street and North Street in Bedminster, along with various locations around the city center. The artworks consist of large stickers created from handmade relief or screen prints that are quickly pasted onto walls as a rapid method of displaying street art. Sgt Wilko, who operates under the Instagram handle "Wilko Official," is preparing for a pop-up exhibition alongside fellow artist Boxi at That Art Gallery, located at the top of Christmas Steps on Colston Street.

The upcoming exhibition is scheduled to open on November 18 and run through November 23, featuring a special late-night event on Thursday, November 20. That Art Gallery promoted the show on Instagram, stating: "You may have seen these prolific Birmingham based artists' work pasted up on the streets? But you probably don't realize that these artworks aren't produced with the press of a button – they're hand made relief/screen prints which That Art Gallery are now proud to present in a one off pop up exhibition in the former Lone Rambler store at the top of Christmas Steps in Bristol."

However, Sgt Wilko's publicity campaign for the exhibition has generated mixed reactions from Bristol residents and business owners. While some residents, including street artist Gemma Compton, have expressed appreciation for the new additions to Bedminster's street art scene through Instagram comments, others have voiced strong opposition to the unauthorized placement of the stickers.

One East Street resident, who requested anonymity, described the situation as problematic for the already challenged area. "This has become a weird new scourge in the Bedminster area – East street businesses, town centre businesses have been covered in these repetitive large pasted graffiti pieces," the resident explained. "They're nice images but they are now covering so many properties without permission it needs to be talked about – unlike normal taggers tagging shutters he's covering businesses actual signs."

Local business owners have expressed particular concern about the impact on their operations and signage. The unnamed resident continued: "Businesses have complained about it. He's also flyering it over phone boxes and so on, on North Street. Street art is important to Bristol, but it's a fine balance when it starts to affect already struggling local businesses who then have the extra expense of clearing them. It's disrespectful covering business shop signage in my opinion."

A shopkeeper on East Street, who also declined to provide his name out of fear it might attract more unauthorized art to his storefront, shared his perspective on the situation. "Graffiti is a part of life in Bedminster, everyone knows that," he acknowledged. "But generally, most of the time, if you have your shutters painted properly they leave it alone. This is worrying though. My neighbor's shop has been covered with these stickers, and it's on the signs too."

The shopkeeper explained the additional burden the sticker campaign has placed on local businesses. "We've had to remove a few of these things, and it's out of order – he's coming down from Birmingham and it looks like he's at least tried to target empty shops, like the old HSBC bank building at the end of East Street, but some of them weren't," he said. "We've got a kind of unspoken agreement with graffiti artists – they sort of know the line people will tolerate, and this is over that line."

The controversy highlights the delicate balance Bristol maintains between celebrating its renowned street art culture and protecting local businesses from unauthorized modifications to their properties. Bristol Live has reached out to Sgt Wilko for comment, but no response has been received at the time of publication.