This story was originally published by ArtsATL.
As of the end of 2025, the walls of Atlanta feature more than 2,000 murals and sanctioned graffiti pieces. Obviously, they didn’t paint themselves — so how did we get here?
This topic could easily fill a book. In an article of this scope, one can only scratch the surface, focusing on just a few points along our city’s journey from municipal disdain for street art to a flourishing culture of muralism.
Atlanta street art started mainly with graffiti
Credit: Photos by Skape Zilla
Credit: Photos by Skape Zilla
At the beginning, Atlanta’s earliest street art was mainly graffiti. A crew called The United Kings introduced style writing — the most skillfully executed level of graffiti — to Atlanta in 1984. They are a family, literally. just_one_uno and the_eskan are brothers, eskem2e and Kram are first cousins. They met rad1 — the nonrelative of the group — out of the blue.
In an email, eskem2e shared his thoughts on the state of Atlanta’s graffiti scene before the United Kings came along. “IT WASN’T!!!! NO SCENE !!! We were the first on the SCENE with the gangster lean!!!!!” eskeme2e said. “OUR INFLUENCE!!!! … We were (DOMINANT). We went big or we went home!!! and we came out!!!! BOMBING WITH STYLE !!! … WE SET THE BAR PRETTY HIGH!!!! In a short period of time and then vanished!!!! We bombed !!! Our last piece in 92 … the infamous!! CIVIC WALL !!!” (You’ll notice that even Eskeme2e’s written prose reflects graffiti’s visual rhythms.)
Although style writing embodies a high level of technical skill and artistic expression, it was still considered vandalism in the eyes of the city. “Nobody had ever met us!!!!” eskeme2e said. “We move like that back then!! You had to!!! If you didn’t want to get caught !!! BY THE WAY, WE NEVER DID!!!”
‘An amazing graff scene’ here in the ‘90s
Atlanta muralist and graffiti writer Matt Letrs, aka letsgopaint, talked about what came next. “It was gritty … man! Very tight-knit and DIY … and bandos (abandoned buildings) galore. There was already an amazing graff scene here in the ’90s and early ’00s; that’s what brought me back here later (that and the music/movie scene). Atlanta had incredibly tight sprayers back in the late ’90s though … HOD, GSK, Burn Unit, 3A, 12v, MSK/AWR … ADM … so many more stopped through.”
“Places like the 40 Yard and Civic Yard were a really special thing not too many cities had at the time. You could walk up and see it — all these amazing full graff murals … and if you had some skills and respect, you could paint,” recalled Letrs. “Those spots were considered ‘legal walls.’ Some of the murals (Mister Totem) and (Company) were doing in spots like that were the closest thing stateside to what was going on in Europe at the time — which was really groundbreaking s---!”
The first Krog Street Tunnel mural
John Dirga, executive director of the Cabbagetown Initiative, detailed how the Krog Street Tunnel became a legal graffiti spot. “Atlanta’s graffiti culture was strong, and the tunnel/train yard combo was pretty magnetic,” Dirga said. “By 2003, Cabbagetown had worked with Major (Carlos) Banda (of the Atlanta Police Department’s Zone 6) to decriminalize painting in Krog, then hired Mister Totem to do a proper piece at the entrance. He depicted a snowball fight, which I think sorta personified the tunnel etiquette: a fierce battle, but … melting and radically impermanent.”
Credit: AAJC 04??26 2,000 murals
Credit: AAJC 04??26 2,000 murals
Living Walls takes a role
Monica Campana, co-founder of Living Walls, moved to town in 2007 to attend art school but dropped out — twice. “Street art in many ways saved me,” Campana said. “At a time when I found myself so lost and depressed, learning the streets, going out at night, making art without having to put my name with it gave me a sense of freedom and direction over the things I wanted to do and the life I wanted to live.”
Campana then met Blacki Li Rudi Migliozzi, the other co-founder of Living Walls, and learned about the academic side of street art’s impact on communities. Campana’s interest in street art shifted from a personal avocation to a civic duty.
Before 2010, there were very few murals in Atlanta. With the founding of Living Walls, that was about to change. The incentive for creating the organization came when the Congress for the New Urbanism conference came to Atlanta in 2010. The conference had a $1,000 entrance fee that excluded the vast majority of people who would actually be affected by the discussions.
“Living Walls is born out of a desire to bring street art from all over the world to Atlanta in an exhibition setting and to create the counter version of the (Congress for the New Urbanism) conference,” Campana said. “Our conference was going to be free and open to the public and not just include academics but also graffiti writers and all people that did work in and about the public space.”
The first Living Walls conference in 2010 had three components: a gallery show, a lecture series at Georgia Tech and more than a dozen public murals. Campana and Migliozzi invited top muralists from all over the world to participate. To their surprise, they all said yes. Today, Living Walls continues to bring new murals by internationally renowned artists to Atlanta every year.
Credit: Photos by Arthur Rudick
Credit: Photos by Arthur Rudick
Beltline trails, new organizations, opportunities
In the years between 2010 and 2020, muralism took off in Atlanta. The Atlanta Beltline — the largest art park in the Southeastern United States — opened the Northside and Westview trails in 2010 and the Eastside trail in 2012. Elevate Atlanta, an annual arts event featuring murals coordinated by the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, was launched in 2011. In 2014, the Forward Warrior annual live mural painting event landed in Cabbagetown. ABV Gallery’s Outer Space Project had its first “mission” in 2015. Within just a few years, street art became commonplace on public walls across the city.
Atlanta’s muralists received a scare in 2017 when the city threatened to enforce a 1982 ordinance requiring a bureaucratic multistep approval process for every public mural, even if it was on private property. A lawsuit by a group of Atlanta artists forced the city to back down. Two years later, in 2019, several high-profile murals were commissioned in preparation for the Super Bowl.
Atlanta ‘the perfect place’ to be an artist
“Yeah, in this era, 2010 to 2020, Atlanta was the perfect place to be if you were trying to make it as an artist,” Letrs said. “I found a nice balance during those years of doing art that paid and art I just wanted to do (regardless of pay). There weren’t many city-funded opportunities, but the scene made up for it in a big way. Good restaurants were opening up left and right, new tech companies and of course the movie/music industry was also in full throttle too … they all wanted murals so, yeah, it was nice.”
Campana said, “I have seen a growth in investment and diversity in street art. 2020 was the height of every corporation having a DEI program that was giving away money to projects that focused on diversity and inclusion.”
By the beginning of 2020, Atlanta’s mural count was approaching 1,000.
COVID causes mural-making to go dark
And then, COVID happened. Along with most other pursuits, mural activity in Atlanta ground to a halt. “2020 was a really tough year,” Letrs said. “It started off so great … (I) won AJC’s ‘best mural’ award and had all this work lined up — then, one week in February it was all gone. So me and Chris Wright painted a few outdoor (COVID awareness) murals, all sanctioned through the proper channels and on the level, of course.”
Credit: Photo by Arthur Rudick
Credit: Photo by Arthur Rudick
Campana and the Living Walls crew also had to adjust to the new normal. “We were very lucky, and we were able to keep work and support our artists during the worst of the pandemic. As terrible and scary as 2020 was, I do think that this year brought a lot of people together, especially artists working on the public space.”
Milestone with Black Lives Matter murals
In May 2020, the murder of George Floyd sparked a wave of Black Lives Matter protest murals that officially pushed Atlanta over the 1,000-mural mark. Erbriyon Barrett and Ashyin collaborated on a BLM mural on Auburn Avenue downtown featuring a brown fist emblazoned with the names of those who lost lives to police brutality. The background colors included blue to represent men, pink to represent women and purple for those in the LGBTQ community.
Credit: Photo by Arthur Rudick
Credit: Photo by Arthur Rudick
Barrett later recalled the significance of the experience. “To me it was important ’cause so much was going on, living right in downtown, seeing the protest every week and being at them. I wanted to share my voice, as well, but in an artistic way. I’m not too good at expressing myself on certain things vocally at times, but I still wanted to do it with my art. At the time I was more into my abstract art, but I still wanted other details so that’s when I reached out to Ash to help collab on the mural with me. It being her first one she’s ever done made it even more meaningful. We were able to complete the mural right on Juneteenth of that year!”
Meanwhile, Dirga gave 2020 a mixed review. “The protest movement brought out some really thoughtful soul-searching work that inspired or admonished, the pandemic made some people really introspective or eager to connect more broadly and then there was a bunch of reactionary hateful s--- that foreshadowed what we’re going through now. I’d never really experienced hard-core supremacist garbage on walls around here … until then. It didn’t stick, but it left a stain.”
Credit: Photo by Arthur Rudick
Credit: Photo by Arthur Rudick
‘Touched’ by help and shared advice
Drew Borders is a member of the Lotus Eaters Club collective and part of the new generation of Atlanta muralists who have come onto the scene since 2020. Borders presented an optimistic view of the time between 2020 and the present. “I’ve always found the art scene to be pretty open and welcoming. I found it easy to connect with other visual artists and (I’ve been) pretty touched with everyone’s willingness to help and share advice,” Borders said. “I think I’ve seen that community of artists morph into so much more. There are various support systems and groups now that offer a safe space and room for creative expression and mentorship. It’s been amazing to watch!”
Funding decreases, identity politics increases
Campana observed that after 2020, changes came to the city’s mural scene. “Funding has decreased, especially because all that DEI money is no longer available. We have seen so many projects end because of that. We see the impact of this in the decrease of murals that depict more brown and Black people on the streets and the increase of more abstract, decorative murals.”
Letrs also opined about the shifts since that time. “Identity politics has really become a part of the culture since (2020), too, and I think it’s had more of a negative effect than a positive one overall. That’s just where we’re at as a culture right now — it’s not just Atlanta.”
Graffiti, murals become eventful
Since 2020, style writing has gone from a public nuisance to be eradicated to a legitimate public art form to be embraced and promoted. Live painting festivals such as the Atlanta Crossroads Mural Festival and the Drip Invitational have featured both murals and style writing. The Atlanta Style Writers Association sponsored the Queens of Style event featuring women graffiti writers. Since 2022, the Atlanta Beltline and the Atlanta Style Writers Association have held the Atlanta Style Writers Jam, featuring top-level local and national writers including The United Kings crew, reunited after a hiatus of 30-plus years.
Credit: Photo by Arthur Rudick
Credit: Photo by Arthur Rudick
At the first Atlanta Style Writers Jam, The United Kings re-created one of their classic pieces from 1986. As eskem2b puts it, “We painted out openly in public and met up with our peers of this beautiful community of writers!!!! We love participating every year!!! And we are all in our late 50s, believe it or not. Still active. From KINGS TO LEGENDS!!!!”
It took 10 years for Atlanta to get its first 1,000 murals and only five years to get its next 1,000. And there should be a lot of great new public artwork on our way to 3,000!
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Arthur Rudick created the Atlanta Street Art Map in 2017 after retiring from a successful career as an engineer with Eastman Kodak and the Coca-Cola Company. His first experience of art was seeing an Alexander Calder mobile as a child in the Pittsburgh airport. Rudick is ArtsATL’s street art expert and a regular contributor.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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