Best Arts Provocateur

Much like hip-hop influenced artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Hebru Brantley, FAHAMU PECOU’s work celebrates blackness and is often strongly tied to street culture. It resonates on a cerebral, spiritual, and basic human level, which makes Pecou’s art relatable regardless of ethnicity. Pecou’s pieces often portray the resilience, glory, and brilliance of black people and take the establishment to task. His painting “Word.Life.” from his exhibit Talking Drum at the Center for Civil and Human Rights earlier this year, features Ruby Bridges — the first black girl to desegregate schools — carrying a boombox instead of a briefcase. In August, his solo exhibit DO or DIE: Affect, Ritual, Resistance opened at the College of Charleston’s Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art and uses West African spirituality to elevate black bodies in opposition to the deathly imagery of state-sponsored violence against unarmed victims. As a scholar and thought-provoker, Pecou has taken his perspective into both academia and mainstream media. In a piece for NBC News following Kendrick Lamar’s profound performance in shackles at the 2016 Grammy’s, Pecou offered critiques on the commodification of blackness. He’s had similar discussions as a guest lecturer at Princeton and Morehouse. As always, Pecou’s thoughts on the intersection of art and hip-hop and how that informs perceptions of blackness are explored regularly on his Tumblr, Scholarshit. www.fahamupecouart.com. less...

The disparate worlds of hip-hop, pro-wrestling and live art collide in artist Fabian Williams’ World Wide Arts Federation art battles. A nod to the Hulk Hogan era of the World Wrestling Federation, WWAF puts swagger and showmanship on display for alter ego artist throwdowns. Artists such as Fahamu Pecou, Michi Meko, CP the Artist Palmer, Grace Kisa, Charly Palmer and more dress as gangstas, psycho killers and martial arts mercenaries to talk trash, face off on canvas and be judged Roman coliseum style by a frenzied crowd at Stuart McClean Gallery. Not to be outdone by his peers, Williams dives into the action, too, alternating between two alter egos: the pimptastic Occasional Superstar and trench-coated masked man Exacto. Whatcha gonna do, when the WWAF runs wild on you? thewwaf.com. less...

When artists, arts organizations and their supporters first learned last April that the Georgia House of Representative’s proposed state budget for 2011 eliminated funds for the Georgia Council for the Arts, the response was swift. The arts community sprang into action to oppose the cuts, including circulating a petition that gathered more than 2,000 signatures in a matter of days. The protesting culminated in a MARCH ON THE CAPITOL April 19 comprising several hundred people, complete with pithy signs, dancing, music, singing, speeches and generally colorful commotion. The following day, the Senate Appropriations Committee modified the budget, which was later approved, allotting approximately $890,000 for the GCA. It was a wake-up call for members of the local art community, who learned the hard way that you’ve got to fight for your right to be arty. less...