In recent years, Atlanta has been called one of the USA's best cities for street art. [1] Street artists have prominently created murals in Krog Street Tunnel, along the BeltLine, and in neighborhoods across the city. [2] The street art conference, Living Walls, the City Speaks, originated in Atlanta in 2009. [3]
Atlanta is host to the street art conference Living Walls, the City Speaks. In 2012, the conference limited participation to women street artists. [4]
The Outerspace Project, an annual series of street art and cultural events coordinated by Greg Mike, began in 2015. [5]
Peter Ferrari founded Forward Warrior, an event and initiative to bring together muralists in Atlanta to add street art to a host neighborhood. [6]
Images and mapped locations of over 200 works of Atlanta street art can be found on the Atlanta Street Art Map. [7] Hotspots for viewing Atlanta street art include:
In 2010, ten haiku poems of artist John Morse were featured on 500 'bandit' signs posted around the streets of Atlanta, a guerrilla installation that received extensive press coverage including The New Yorker , The Guardian , NPR and South African national radio. [8] [9] [10]
Greg Mike began doing graffiti when he was 13 years old, and he started painting murals in his twenties. [11] His murals are prominent in Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward neighborhood. [11] Mike is known for his Loudmouf Larry depictions in his art. [12]
Fabian Williams creates murals under his pseudonym Occasional Superstar. [13] In 2017, Williams painted a mural of native Georgian and civil rights leader Hosea Williams. [14] In 2017, Playboy named Fabian Williams a "New Creative". [15]
On April 1, 2011, Alex Brewer, also known as HENSE, and several other local Atlanta graffiti artists, were sued for $1 million by Atlanta neighborhood property owners. [19] However, shortly after HENSE and several artists countersued stating they had nothing to do with the work that they were being sued for. [20] Despite HENSE's prolific "all-city status" for tags, his 2010 grant proposals for city-funded wall paintings on Arizona Avenue and along the Atlanta BeltLine were all accepted. [21]
In May 2011 the City of Atlanta established a Graffiti Task Force. In October 2011 the police arrested 7 persons that they designated as vandals and some regard as artists. However, city officials assert that they have no intention of stifling the street art scene. The city selected 29 murals which would not be painted over including those commissioned as part of the BeltLine and works created during the Living Walls conferences. But the list did not include the most famous street art space in the city, the Krog Street Tunnel. Many street artists and members of the arts community interviewed by Creative Loafing believe the city's efforts are misdirected or futile. [22]
In May 2017, the city of Atlanta began regulating murals on private property, enforcing a 1982 ordinance that artists and property owners must complete an application process to obtain approval from the city or face a $1,000 fine and up to six months' confinement. [23] A group of artists, including Fabian Williams, Peter Ferrari, and Yoyo Ferro, sued the city, claiming the ordinance was unconstitutional. [24] In June 2017, the city settled the lawsuit, agreeing not to require artists to obtain city approval for murals on private property. [25]
A street artist is a person who makes art in public places. Street artists include portrait artists, caricaturists, graffiti artists, muralists and people making crafts. Street artists can also refer to street performers such as musicians, acrobats, jugglers, living statues, and street theatre performers. Street artists can be seen throughout the world.
Little Five Points is a district on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, 2+1⁄2 miles (4.0 km) east of downtown. It was established in the early 20th century as the commercial district for the adjacent Inman Park and Candler Park neighborhoods, and has since become famous for the alternative culture it brings to Atlanta. It has been described as Atlanta's version of Haight-Ashbury, a melting pot of sub-cultures, and the bohemian center of the Southern United States.
East Atlanta is a neighborhood on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The name East Atlanta Village primarily refers to the neighborhood's commercial district.
Kirkwood is a national historic designated neighborhood on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is a historic streetcar suburb situated entirely in DeKalb County, bordered by the neighborhoods of Lake Claire, East Lake, Edgewood, and Oakhurst. Kirkwood is bound on the north by DeKalb Avenue, on the south by Memorial Drive and Interstate 20, on the west by Montgomery Street, and on the east by 1st Ave. A large part of the neighborhood is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Kirkwood Historic District.
Cabbagetown is an intown neighborhood on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, abutting historic Oakland Cemetery. It includes the Cabbagetown District, a historic district listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art.
OSGEMEOS are identical twin street artists Otavio Pandolfo and Gustavo Pandolfo. They started painting graffiti in 1987 and their work appears on streets and in galleries across the world.
Mural Arts Philadelphia is a non-profit organization that supports the creation of public murals in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1986 as the Mural Arts Program, the organization was renamed in 2016. Having ushered more than 4,000 murals into being, it calls itself "the nation’s largest public art program." As of 2024, the organization runs 50 to 100 public art projects each year, including new murals in neighborhoods such as Kensington, Northern Liberties, and the Gayborhood. It also works to maintain existing murals.
The Old Fourth Ward, often abbreviated O4W, is an intown neighborhood on the eastside of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The neighborhood is best known as the location of the Martin Luther King Jr. historic site.
Stephen J. Powers is an American contemporary artist and muralist. He is also known by the name ESPO, and Steve Powers. He lives in New York City.
RISK, also known as RISKY, is a Los Angeles–based graffiti writer and contemporary artist often credited as a founder of the West Coast graffiti scene. In the 1980s, he was one of the first graffiti writers in Southern California to paint freight trains, and he pioneered writing on "heavens", or freeway overpasses. He took his graffiti into the gallery with the launch of the Third Rail series of art shows, and later created a line of graffiti-inspired clothing. In 2017, RISK was knighted by the Medici Family.
Graffiti in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a cause of much disagreement among its residents. Graffiti is seen by some as an art form adding to the Toronto culture; however, others see graffiti as form of vandalism, viewing it as ugly, or as a form of property damage.
The arts in Atlanta are well-represented, with a prominent presence in music, fine art, and theater.
Living Walls, The City Speaks is an annual street art conference co-founded in 2009 by Monica Campana & Blacki Migliozzi. The conference was first held in 2010. It was originally held in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2011, a sister event, called "Living Walls, Albany" was also held in Albany, New York.
The Krog Street Tunnel is a tunnel in Atlanta known for its street art. Built in 1913, the tunnel links the Cabbagetown, Reynoldstown, and Inman Park neighborhoods. It is part of the Eastside Trail of the BeltLine for bicyclists and pedestrians to cross Hulsey Yard.
Alex Brewer, also known as HENSE, is an American contemporary artist, best known for his dynamic, vivid and colorful abstract paintings and monumental wall pieces. He has been active since the 1990s. In 2002 he began accepting commissions for artwork and over the course of the last decade has established a solid reputation as a commissioned artist, having appeared in several solo and group shows.
Art Whino is an art gallery at the National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Its primary objective has been to provide exposure to artists of the Lowbrow art movement, also sometimes referred to as Pop Surrealism and Newbrow, since its inception in 2007. The gallery space has exhibitions featuring talent from across the U.S. and abroad, as well as publications and specialty toy merchandise pertinent to Newbrow culture and related underground art movements. Art Whino avidly participates in the Washington, D.C. art scene, and other national art events such as Art Basel in Miami and New York Comic Con.
Edgewood Avenue is a street in Atlanta, Georgia, United States which runs from Five Points in Downtown Atlanta, eastward through the Old Fourth Ward. The avenue runs in the direction of the Edgewood neighborhood, and stops just short of it in Inman Park. Edgewood Avenue was first important as the route of a streetcar line to Inman Park, Atlanta's first garden suburb and home to many of its most prominent citizens. Today, the avenue is known for its restaurants and nightlife around its intersection with Boulevard.
Gregory Michael Mensching, commonly known as Greg Mike, is an American artist. He began doing graffiti at age 13, and transitioned into murals in his later twenties. He is known for street art, mural painting and Loudmouf Icon in the United States, Australia, Canada and Switzerland. In 2008, he founded ABV Gallery and Agency in Atlanta, GA which exhibits artists from around the world and works with brands on commercial design projects.
West Bank Wall graffiti art is street art on the walled sections of the Israeli West Bank barrier, by a wide range of international and Palestinian artists. The wall is 8 to 10 metres tall, and is easily accessible to artists as it frequently divides urban areas. The graffiti is on the Palestinian side of the wall and primarily expresses anti-wall sentiments.
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