About
Photo Credit: Erik Umphery
Dr. Fahamu Pecou is an interdisciplinary artist and scholar whose works combine observations on hip-hop, fine art, and popular culture to address concerns around contemporary representations of Black men. Through paintings, performance art, and academic work, Dr. Pecou confronts the performance of Black masculinity and Black identity, challenging and expanding the reading, performance, and expressions of Blackness.
Dr. Fahamu Pecou received his BFA at the Atlanta College of Art in 1997 and a Ph.D. from Emory University in 2018. Dr. Pecou exhibits his art worldwide in addition to lectures and speaking engagements at colleges and universities. In 2024, Dr. Pecou was recently named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Letres (Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters) by the Republic of France.
As an educator, Dr. Pecou has developed (ad)Vantage Point, a narrative-based arts curriculum focused on Black male youth. Dr. Pecou is also the founding Director of the African Diaspora Art Museum of Atlanta (ADAMA).
Pecou's work is featured in noted private and public national and international collections including; Smithsonian National Museum of African American Art and Culture, Societe Generale (Paris), Nasher Museum at Duke University, The High Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Seattle Art Museum, Paul R. Jones Collection, ROC Nation, Clark Atlanta University Art Collection and Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia.
Dr. Pecou was recently announced as one of the recipients of the 2022 Louis Comfort Tiffany Award. In 2020, Pecou was one of 6 artists selected for Emory University's groundbreaking Arts & Social Justice Fellowship. Additionally, Pecou was the Georgia awardee for the 2020 South Arts Prize. In 2017 he was the subject of a retrospective exhibition "Miroirs de l'Homme" in Paris, France. A recipient of the 2016 Joan Mitchell Foundation "Painters and Sculptors" Award, his work also appears in several films and television shows including; HBO's Between the World and Me, Blackish, and The Chi. Pecou's work has also been featured on numerous publications including Atlanta Magazine, Hanif Abdurraqib's poetry collection, A Fortune for Your Disaster and the award-winning collection of short stories by Rion Amilcar Scott, The World Doesn't Require You.
Continue below for CV.
Curriculum Vitae
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2023
If Heaven Had Heights, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA
Brand NewBeins, Tufenkian Gallery, Glendale, CA
2022
Return of the King, Pontone Gallery London, United Kingdom
People’s Instinctive Travels, Backslash Gallery Paris, France
Selected Works, University Art Gallery Sewanee University of the South
2021
The Space Between, Hambidge Art Lab, Atlanta, GA
2020
TRAPADEMIA III: 7 African Powers, Conduit Gallery, Dallas, TX
TRAPADEMIA II: LIT, Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
Praise Songs, Fondation Montresso, Marrakech, Morocco
2019
Memory, Weeksville Heritage Center, Brooklyn NY,
Of Crowns and Kings, Backslash Gallery, Paris France
TRAPADEMIA, Kopeiken Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Do or Die: Affect Ritual Resistance, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC
Do or Die: Affect Ritual Resistance, African American Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA
Do or Die: Affect Ritual Resistance, Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga
2018
Do or Die: Affect Ritual Resistance, Weber State University, Ogden UT
Do or Die: Affect Ritual Resistance, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH
Memory, Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
2017
Black Magic, Backslash Gallery, Paris, France
Miroirs de l’Homme: Une Retrospective, Collection Societe Generale, Paris, France
Music as A Weapon, Seattle Art Fair, Backslash Gallery, Seattle, WA
The People Could Fly, Conduit Gallery, Dallas, TX
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2023
In-Discipline: Blackness, Montresso Foundation, Marrakesh, Morocco
The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
2022
The Dirty South, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Blackness, Montresso Art Foundation, Marrakech, Morocco
2021
Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington DC
The Dirty South, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Black Beauty, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA
Visible Man: Art and Black Masculinity, Bowling Green University, Bowling Green, OH
2020
Drawing the Ghost, Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Seattle, WA
South Arts Southern Prize & State Fellows, Bo Bartlett Center, Columbus, GA
Permanent and Natural, Carnegie Center for Art & History, New Albany, IN
Fashion Conscious, Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art, Rancho Cucamongo, CA
2019
Men of Steel, Women of Wonder, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR
Fashioning the Black Body, Projects+ Gallery, St. Louis, Ms
2018
Constructing Identity in America (1766-2017), Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
RESPECT: HipHop Style and Wisdom, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
Pop Stars! Popular Culture and Contemporary Art, 21c Museum, Oklahoma City, OK
2017
#BlackArtMatters, Carnegie Center for Art and Art History, New Albany, IN
Southern Accent: Seeking the South in Contemporary Art, Speed Art Museum, Lexington, KY
State of the Art, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN
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2023
In-Discipline: Blackness, Montresso Foundation, Marrakesh, Morocco
Lyrics To Go, VisArts, Rockville, MD
2022
Re:Focus, Swan Coach House Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Guest Curator, Congo Biennale, Kinshasa, DRC
2018
Welcome to Atlanta: The Life and Work of Charles Huntley Nelson, Hammonds House Museum, Atlanta, GA
2015
ELEVATE 2015 “F.I.L.A. (Forever I Love Atlanta), Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, Atlanta GA
RITES, Zuckeman Museum of Art, Kennessaw, GA
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Emory University, Atlanta, GA
Roc Nation
Seattle Art Museum, WA
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
21c Museum Hotel
Museum of Contemporary Art, Atlanta, GA
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AK
Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Raleigh, NC
Société Générale, Paris
The West Collection, Philadelphia, PA
Tullman Art Collection, Chicago, IL
Clark Atlanta University Collections, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA
Paul R. Jones Collection, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
Fulton County Arts Council, Atlanta, GA
National Museum of African American Music, Nashville, TN
CBH Bank, Geneva