Creative Loafing Arts & Entertainment Guide 2006

The Painter
Fahamu "The Guru" Pecou
BY FELICIA FEASTER
Published 09.06.06

Name: Fahamu "The Guru" Pecou
Age: 31
Genre(s): Painting and performance art

Work: Blending the lines between hip-hop ego and artistic self-aggrandizement, Pecou exploits overlaps between the two in our culture of celebrity. His saucy acrylic paintings place Pecou on art magazine covers like Art Papers and Art in America, and his performances feature the artist as a well-dressed Super Somebody surrounded by genuflecting flunkeys. In his self-marketing campaign, "Fahamu Pecou Is the Shit" the artist shows a keen awareness of the increasing urge -- in art and in life -- to make oneself into a product.

Education: Digital art and painting, Atlanta College of Art, 1997

Prophecy: Graphic designer by day, conceptual artist by night, Pecou will have his clever, inventive work featured this fall in San Francisco. Hopefully the rest of the country will soon discover why Atlanta is becoming a hotbed for smart, conceptual black artists like Pecou.

X-Factor: Pecou's name is Swahili for "understanding" and it is clear this young artist "gets it." His puncturing of popular culture hyperbole and his polished magazine-ready visuals make him a name to watch.