Muhammad Yungai

May 1, 2019:  In a February 2019 article in VoyageATL, here’s how Muhammad Yungai described himself: “I am an artist who creates murals for schools. I help schools create culture through art and color. I try to create inspirational visual stories that helps to keep the school building connected to the school’s mission. I am most proud when students and teachers tell me how much they enjoy seeing my artwork every day. I know that my work has then served its purpose, and so have I!” Growing up, Yungai didn’t see visual representations of black and brown people presented as positive role models. Now he is on a mission to correct that.

Born in New Orleans in 1974, he is a self-taught artist, husband to his wife Khadijah and father of two grown daughters. Muhammad first began painting in high school inspired by the colorful stylized works of another self-taught artist William Tolliver. After working exhaustively towards the herculean task of achieving Tolliver’s level of artistry, Yungai became dissatisfied with his efforts and put painting aside for several years. He moved to Atlanta in 1996 with hopes of making it big in the music industry. Although Muhammad was going to make it big in the arts, his art of choice turned out to be painting rather than music.

When one of Yungai’s daughters attended KIPP WAYS Academy in Atlanta’s Bankhead neighborhood Muhammad once again heard the paint brush’s siren song and volunteered to paint inspiring murals for the school. The principal was so impressed with his work that he recruited Muhammad to become the school’s visual arts teacher. There is no better way to learn a subject that to teach it, so over his ten years as a visual arts teacher, he immersed himself in both learning and teaching the basics of art. During this time Muhammad continued painting murals inside of the KIPP school system. It wasn’t long before other schools started asking for his murals. For several years, Yungai supplemented his income as a teacher by painting school murals in his spare time. Then in 2016 after both of his daughters were away at college, he made the leap of faith and became a full-time muralist. Initially the transition from a steady income to getting paid by the gig took some getting used to, but Muhammad is making the adjustment.

Today Yungai’s murals depicting lively positive images of people of color can be found throughout the hallways and classrooms of schools in Atlanta and all over the country. Muhammad has also done commissions for the Atlanta Jazz Festival, and the Essence Music Festival. He was a featured muralist for the Off-the-Wall initiative creating four civil rights themed murals in downtown Atlanta for the 2019 SuperBowl.

Link to Muhammad Yungai’s website: http://artofyungai.com/

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