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Since the city's beginnings after the War of 1812, Atlanta has had a tradition of building with a regard for becoming a world-class metropolis. Before being burned by Union general William T. Sherman in 1864, the city's appearance was described by noted European architect and urban planner Leon Krier as looking like London in the 18th century. Atlanta was surrounded by estates and plantations, and many of the plantation builders were influenced by Greek and Roman architecture. The argument of slavery to the contrary, builders saw Greek temples as symbols of democracy and, as a result, embraced Greek and Roman revival architecture as the dominant national style. Great monuments followed in this tradition to the letter in the capital of the South.

The public art in Atlanta includes a broad range of media, subjects, styles, and artistic merit. Statuary and figurative sculpture, often in bronze, memorialize historic individuals, while contemporary sculpture includes large-scale abstract works in stone, stainless or weathering steel, and other materials. Street artists and muralists have created more than 1,000 urban murals throughout the city, including large and colorful abstract "canvases," with thematic subjects referencing sports, nature, social issues, the city's African American and Hispanic communities, and Atlanta's leadership in the civil rights movement. Some guerrilla artists began as traffickers of graffiti who tagged buildings, railroad boxcars, and underpasses, creating iconic compilations such as the Krog Street Tunnel. Street art styles embrace photo-realism, abstract expressionism, or folk, op, or pop art, with the latter inspired by fantasy, comic-strip graphics, or Goth. Native Atlantan Alex Brewer (also known as HENSE) has executed commissions from Peru to Australia, while artists from Barcelona, Rome, and Zimbabwe have contributed to Atlanta's status as an international city.