I particularly loved the art around Praça de Peixe and Carlos Prates. The stuff around Savassi was bigger and more impressive, but somehow more professional and generic.

Same! You are probably thinking about the murals by Hugues Desmaziéres (and Douglas Melo) [1][2]. Seeing those murals in the 90s really excited my imagination as a kid.

[1] https://repositorio.ufmg.br/handle/1843/35311

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQTui7ZdbJQ

Downtown BH and around Savassi iirc have very good murals. I like seeing them instead of the pixo tags we see at the top of the buildings. Honestly, I wouldn't mind pixo that much if it was colorful, like someone posted a picture from the Paris metro. It's still illegal, but at least it's not just a dick swinging contest seeing who's going higher, it looks nicer.

> Honestly, I wouldn't mind pixo that much if it was colorful, like someone posted a picture from the Paris metro.

Indeed. Most of the markings are low-effort territory marking. At least they aren't peeing on walls.

Maybe if we added arts to the basic school curriculum some aesthetic sensitivity could be imparted in them so they'd feel pressed to better consider what they are going to paint.