Living Walls Starts a New Conversation

You may have noticed new art going up on various walls around Atlanta in the past week. That would be the Living Walls Conference hard at work.  Living Walls is an annual conference on street art. Their main thrust is inviting international and local artists to the city to paint murals on walls. Then there are five days of lectures, films, music, parties, tours of the murals and more.

Last year, two murals caught wider attention: one, by Argentinian artist Hyuro depicted a nude woman shedding fur, which transformed into a wolf—and a second, by French artist Roti depicted a man with the head of an alligator. Both caught the ire of people living in the neighborhood, the first for being pornographic, the second for being “demonic.” Roti’s wall was painted over by upset community members, but later cleaned. Hyuro’s mural was painted over by Living Walls at the neighborhood’s behest.