NYAB Event - Fahamu Pecou “Pursuit of Happiness”

Fahamu Pecou “Pursuit of Happiness”

Lyons Wier Gallery

This event has ended.

Michel Foucault’s theory of subjectivation (the construction of the individual) includes what he calls “ethical substance.” This substance forms the basis of our existential angst, the pursuit of happiness, and the desire to correct our own self-imposed ethical dilemma. Through intentions and actions, both consciously and unconsciously, we act based on our perceived reality of this ethical substance.

For many of us, the dilemma extends to attempts to validate our selves in the eyes of others by outward showings of affluence and influence. We allow media images to convince us of the necessity of owning, wearing, and having certain things or of the need to be seen in certain places. We convince ourselves that true happiness can be found in such things and often our desperation blinds us to the reality… that none of it is real!

Who are we minus the labels and attachments? What does “happy” actually look, and feel, like? Often, in this pursuit of happiness we find ourselves chasing our worth through material gains. We are convinced that the more we have, the more we are. These works examine our obsession with “looking to be seen”, specifically through the lens of hip-hop and Black masculinity. Using satire, through both language and image, Fahamu Pecou offers a critical glimpse into the insecurities being played out in hip-hop music, visual culture and American popular culture at large.

Fahamu Pecou has been featured in several solo and group exhibitions in the US and abroad. Museum shows include the upcoming “State of the Art” exhibition at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR (Sept 13, 2014 - Jan 19, 2015), “GRAV-I-TY” solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCAGA) (Dec 13, 2014 - Feb 14, 2015), the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA (Feb 2015), Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), Brooklyn, NY, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum, Amistad Center, Hartford, CT, and Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX.

Pecou’s work has been reviewed in numerous publications such as Art In America, Harper’s Magazine, NY Arts Magazine, among others. He is a recipient of the Artadia Award (2009), the first ever Artist in Resident for the Harvey B.Gantt Center for African American Arts & Culture Resident at the McColl Center for Visual Art in Charlotte, NC (2010) and a winner of the 2012 West Collection Prize. His work is featured in noted private and public collections including the Nasher Museum at Duke University, The High Museum of Art, Paul R. Jones Collection, Clark Atlanta University Art Collection, The Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia, The West Collection and Societe Generale, Paris, France. Pecou is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree at the Institute of Liberal Arts (ILA) at Emory University. Fahamu Pecou lives and works in Atlanta, GA.