Dr. Fahamu Pecou is an American visual artist and scholar known for producing works that combine aspects of Fine art and Hip-hop as commentary on Popular culture. Most of his works engage representations of black masculinity and identity.
Early life and education
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Fahamu Pecou holds a BFA in Painting and Digital Media from the Atlanta College of Art in 1997. He also completed a Directed Study at Spelman College under the guidance of Dr. Arturo Lindsay. He received his MA from Emory University's Institute of Liberal Arts in 2017 and his Ph.D. from the same institution in 2018.
Arts career
Despite his aspirations of being a practicing fine artist, Fahamu Pecou began his career as a graphic designer. He produced materials for nightclubs, restaurants, and politicians as well as hip hop artists and labels. Working with rap artists, Pecou began to consider the marketing strategies used in hip hop and ultimately applied those same strategies to his own practice. His early paintings juxtaposed a street-savvy and in-your-face hip hop bravado with the more conservative art world. More recently, his paintings focus on contemporary representations of black masculinity and identity. Pecou uses acrylic paint on canvas, video, music and performance art and academic writings to engage the complexities and convergences of hip-hop and black masculinity. His works display the spirit of modern-day Black America and also depict the history and culture of the African diaspora. They are known to be bold, bright and confrontational with inherent political undertone. Notable series within Pecou's body of work include Pursuit of Happiness, Imagining New Worlds, Grav•i•ty, I Know Why the Caged Bird Blings and Talking Drum. Pecou's works are featured in major national and international galleries, museums and collections such as: the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the High Museum of Art, Société Générale, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Paul R. Jones Collection, Clark Atlanta UniversityArt Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, and several others both in the private and public sectors. Pecou engages in regular solo and group art exhibition across the globe. He also holds public lectures and speaking engagements at colleges and museums across the US. In addition to his own work, Pecou has curated notable exhibitions, including RiTES at the Zuckerman Museum at Kennesaw State University. In 2015, Pecou was selected by the City of Atlanta's Office of Cultural Affairs to curate ELEVATE Atlanta; the city’s annual public arts festival. Starting in 2015, Pecou has also collaborated with the organizations WonderRoot, MARTA, Fulton County Arts and Culture, and the TransFormation Alliance to revitalize select MARTA stations by painting murals. The stations that will participate in this En Route program include the King Memorial, Oakland City, Hamilton E. Holmes, and Ashby stations. The goal of the project is to make the stations more inviting and encourage a sense of community. The project received $50,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts. So far, murals by Pecou have been painted at the King Memorial Station, the Ashby Station, and the Oakland City Station. On Saturday, September 8, 2018, Pecou's studio was destroyed in a fire while the artist was traveling abroad.
