Peter Ferrari

November 20, 2018:  Peter Ferrari is a freelance painter and muralist living and working in his home town of Atlanta. Ferrari is one of Atlanta’s most prolific public artists.  His older style reminds me of a mashup of tangled plumbing pipes and vines growing in a time-lapse video. Some of his more recent works are reminiscent of a retro paisley pattern. Hands are also a common image in the artist’s murals.

Peter did some illegal tagging in younger years until his mother encouraged him to transition to canvas work out of concern for his safety.  However Peter never lost his love for filling walls and today considers himself fortunate to have the opportunity to return to larger scale work in the form of commissioned murals.  Ferrari especially enjoys doing commission work for the film industry because they have generous budgets and allow lots of creative license.  Peter painted the iconic “Best of Atlanta” mural for the cover of Atlanta magazine in 2015.  This famous mural till can still be seen at Paris on Ponce in Midtown Atlanta.

Ferrari’s mark on Atlanta extends well beyond just artwork on walls. When the city of Atlanta threatened to place bureaucratic  restrictions on public artwork in 2017, Ferrari participated in the lawsuit that forced the city to back down. Later that year Peter was one of the recipients of the ArtsAtl Luminary Award and received Creative Loafing’s “best advocate for the arts” award.  Ferrari is also founder and curator of Forward Warrior, a block party with music and live painting performances where attendees meet and interact with their favorite artists and see the mural making process from beginning to end.

“Forward Warrior” was a phrase of encouragement used by Ferrari and a former roommate when times were tough. The event started in 2011 with Peter and a dozen friends hosting a live performance party along the beltline in the Old Fourth Ward.  In 2013 Forward Warrior was invited into the Castleberry Hill community to paint. In 2014 the event was invited to paint in Cabbagetown  along the half mile long wall owned by CSX  which was plagued by graffiti tags. The thought was that taggers would respect murals.  It worked and the event is still there today.

Ferrari received his undergraduate degree in Sociology from Emory University and his Master’s Degree in Education from Loyola University.  Peter was also an AMI certified Montessori teacher for six years before turning to art full time.  Peter also participates in the Wonderroot mentoring program, and is a former Living Walls contributor.

Link to Peter Ferrari’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fastredcar/

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