joshua vides’ mercedes SL500 looks like a drawing, and now it’s up for auction

joshua vides’ mercedes SL500

A 1997 Mercedes-Benz SL500 covered in Joshua Vides‘ hand-painted black-and-white linework has surfaced on Bring a Trailer, where it is currently being offered at no reserve. It was one of three cars Vides transformed for his 2025 Los Angeles exhibition, Check Engine Light.

The body is wrapped in white before painting across its familiar curves until the physical car began to read like an oversized automotive sketch. Beneath it all sits a 226,000-mile SL500 with a 5.0-liter V8, black leather interior, and the broad proportions that made this generation of Mercedes such a recognizable presence through the 1990s. The auction scheduled to close on August 29th, 2026.

images via Bring a Trailer

joshua vides takes the R129 back to the drawing board

Vides calls the approach Reality to Idea, a technique he has developed across objects, interiors, and cars by reducing their surfaces to white fields edged with loose black marks. ‘It’s taking everything back to its original sketch,‘ he explained around the opening of Check Engine Light.

On the SL500, thick brushstrokes trace the grille, bumpers, body seams, and reflections across the hood, while irregular widths and occasional drips leave the hand of the artist visible. From certain angles, the Mercedes seems to flatten against the background, its volume briefly giving way to something closer to an early designer’s rendering.

The choice of car came from Vides’ own memories of growing up around 1990s car culture. Born in 1989, the California artist selected vehicles for the exhibition according to the impressions they had made on him as a kid.

The Honda Civic represented something attainable, while the SL500 occupied another world entirely. Vides remembered it as a ‘drug dealer car,’ usually sitting on monoblock wheels and carrying a specific attitude the R129 acquired during the decade. The show was completed by a third car, a Porsche 964.

Joshua Vides transforms a 1997 Mercedes-Benz SL500 with hand-painted linework

from gallery installation back to the road

Inside the Los Angeles installation, those three cars — the Mercedes-Benz, Honda, and Porsche — sat within a room covered in the same graphic language. Black lines extended across the walls and floor so the vehicles appeared to slip between three dimensions and two.

For the SL, Vides concentrated particularly on reflections and glare, translating the patches of light that would normally move across metallic bodywork into fixed painted shapes. The car itself had originally left the factory in Brilliant Silver Metallic before receiving the white vinyl wrap and painted treatment.

Once Check Engine Light closed, Vides planned to make the Mercedes usable again. The portions covering its windows and lighting were removed, while much of the painted wrap remained across the body.

The current Bring a Trailer listing still carries that altered version of the work, with portions of the front valance, third brake light, and fog lights covered. The car also retains its SL1 Sport Package and sits on 18-inch AMG-style wheels.

the R129 was created for Vides’ 2025 Check Engine Light exhibition in LA