Street Art Stories: 3 people who keep Pittsburgh and Adair Park shining

Atlanta’s Pittsburgh and Adair Park neighborhoods host some of the city’s most active street art scenes. These three people helped make that happen.

::

How did Atlanta’s Pittsburgh and Adair Park neighborhoods become two of the city’s best venues for street art viewing?

Let’s start from the beginning: In the 1890s, an African American neighborhood south of Atlanta lived under a pervasive pall of smoke from the nearby Pegram Railroad Yard. The neighborhood’s nickname of “Pittsburgh” was probably not intended as a compliment, as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was one of America’s most polluted cities at that time. Immediately to the west, the all-white neighborhood of Adair Park was developed largely by real-estate speculator George Washington Adair, who increased the value of his property by building a horse-drawn trolly line to downtown.

In the 1960s and 1970s, both Pittsburgh and Adair Park fell into decline, then rebounded economically in the 2000s. In 2018, the twin neighborhoods began their metamorphosis into a street art hot spot when Mutiny Artwx, a creative space hosting artist studios, sponsored the Artoberfest mural festival along a 600-foot-long wall at MET Atlanta. Today, the two neighborhoods have a collection of murals that is the envy of most other Atlanta districts.

Many people helped bring about this transformation. Here are three:

George F. Baker III

Artist George F. Baker III was born in Nebraska, raised in Detroit and moved to Atlanta in 2008. Baker painted four murals in Adair Park and one in Pittsburgh. He was influenced by the cartoons he watched as a child, and that happy child-like wonderment carries over into his art today.

Like most of his murals, his Pittsburgh and Adair Park works are inspirational. The artist described his special connection to Adair Park in an Instagram post: “Adair Park was where I found solace in times of massive change. And it was where my dream started to crystalize. The neighborhood, the people, just everything helped make me who I am now.”

In 2021, when global art activation agency Muros approached Baker for a project in Atlanta, baker knew exactly where he wanted to locate his mural depicting people enjoying various sports. Titled The Jewel of Atlanta, it faces the neighborhood’s largest park. “It is meant to christen the joy of play that is found in Adair Park” said Baker on social media. “A place where the community creates and fosters nothing but a joyful energy throughout everyone who comes here.”

Baker’s longest mural in this area is at the corner of Metropolitan Parkway and Shelton Avenue. Sponsored by Adidas in 2023, this floral themed expanse honors four ambassadors of the LEAD. Center for Youth, which mentors at risk African American youth through baseball. The quote on the mural reads “You can give the world jewels to hold … but … Legacy is what you leave in people.”

Naomi

In 2022, art activist Naomi, founder of the Atlanta Style Writers Association, successfully pitched the idea for an annual celebration of graffiti to Atlanta BeltLine Art, and the Atlanta StyleWriters Jam was born. This annual event is responsible for three graffiti installations in the Pittsburgh and Adair Park neighborhoods. Style writing is the top end of the graffiti spectrum — skillfully and artistically executed with intricate designs.

Naomi (who asked to be referred to by first name only) enthusiastically talked about her organization but didn’t offer much about herself, simply saying, “It’s not about me; it’s about the style writing movement.” The purpose of the Atlanta Style Writers Association is to elevate the style writing culture both from within and to the public. In Naomi’s view, graffiti is never going to stop, and gentrification is never going to stop so we should bring them together in a productive way.

The public facing work of the Atlanta Style Writers Association includes educating people on how graffiti developed into style writing and eventually evolved into the street art that we know and love today, including muralism. Other goals include erasing the negative stigma of graffiti, showing that graffiti is really an art form and platforming as many style writers as possible from as many different eras and in as many ways as possible.

When Naomi, together with other respected members of the style writing community, curates the Atlanta StyleWriters Jam, she thinks in terms of three generations: The founders of the style writing movement, the contemporary writers and the kids who will become the next generation of writers.

On Warner Street, the Jam features Untouched Letters, a modern graffiti crew with a still-evolving style influenced by Southern graffiti from the early 2000s. On Metropolitan Parkway under the Beltline, the artists on one side of the bridge include Sparky Z (one of Atlanta’s first writers from the ’80s), Saves (another artist from the ’80s influencing the younger generation), and S.V. (who brought a lot of graffiti knowledge to Atlanta from New York). On the other side of the bridge is Wane, a New York subway painter from the ’80s, who now does murals all over the world in a deconstructed graffiti style. Under the Lee Street Bridge, you will see writers from a range of eras — for example, the United Kings crew (’80s), Born (early 2000s) and H Dawg (contemporary).

Chris Makes Art

Chris Wright (aka Chris Makes Art), together with fellow artist Dosa Kim, organized the Atlanta Crossroads Mural Festival in 2024, bringing more than 60 murals to Pittsburgh. A San Francisco native, Chris moved to Atlanta to attend SCAD.

“My artwork is colorful and stupid,” said Chris. “Lowbrow art sometimes with a message, but not necessarily. Always a little cheeky sense of humor. I had an ass-load of pretentious art in college, and I’ve always pushed back on that self-important shit. My goal is to be a huge disappointment to everyone trying to put art on a pedestal.”

In 2014, Living Walls — an Atlanta-based street art organization — sponsored a 270-foot-long mural on a building owned by Atlanta businessman Lou Holtz on Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard. The artwork had fallen into disrepair, so Holtz reached out to Chris to replace the mural, granting him artistic freedom. This was a great opportunity to turn the simple wall update into a major art event.

The Atlanta Crossroads Mural Festival expanded to two more buildings on Humphries Street, one owned by Holtz and the other by real-estate developer and business owner Sean Khademi. Sadly, Holtz passed away before the event date, so one of festival’s murals is a memorial to him. Immediately to the left of that mural, Chris’ own mural shows his cheeky sense of humor: It depicts two beleaguered guys taking extreme measures to fend off a hoard of marauding insects.

Many art festivals exclude graffiti. As a historical reminder that today’s street art muralism evolved from graffiti, one of the event’s marquee walls features pieces by members of Untouched Letters. Each work is stylistically unique, but they are all united by a common color palette. The background is a forest theme, complete with lurking woodland creatures. A graffiti crew was chosen because they work together harmoniously, whereas a random assortment of writers might be tough to wrangle.

::

I hope this article has inspired you to visit Pittsburgh and Adair Park yourself to see all five of George F. Baker III’s walls, all three installations from the Atlanta StyleWriters Jam and all 60-plus murals from the Atlanta Crossroads Mural Festival.

Editor’s Note: The author of this article regularly tracks street art in Atlanta and has produced a full, self-guided walking tour of Pittsburgh and Adair Park, accessible here.

::

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.