T̶h̶e̶y̶ We Didn't Realize We Were Seeds: We The Roses: Fahamu Pecou

Featuring new paintings, drawings, and sculptures, Fahamu Pecou's exhibition "They We Didn't Realize We Were Seeds: We The Roses" employs "Afrotropes"—a term coined by Huey Copeland and Krista Thompson, referring to the recurring codes, symbols, aesthetics, and concepts emanating from Black culture—to create encounters with everyday objects transformed and empowered through his meticulous process of recontextualization and cultural reclamation.

Presented across three distinct installations, the exhibition reimagines modern objects as mimetic fetishes, intertwining traditional African spiritual artifacts with contemporary Black cultural symbols. Through a series of drawings, Pecou highlights the Jordan 1 sneaker, illustrating its evolution from a mere basketball shoe to a cultural icon embodying aspiration, hope, triumph, and the transcendent power of flight. His paintings in "REAL NEGUS DON’T DIE" employ the graphic t-shirt—often a posthumous tribute to fallen Black icons—to challenge and overturn narratives of death and violence, instead celebrating their enduring legacies. In the vitrinal sculptures of "Louis Knapsack Where I’m Holding all the Work At," Pecou transforms the transparent plastic backpacks, initially designed to monitor Black students, into fashionable objects, thereby addressing themes of racial violence and resilience. This exhibition, Pecou's first gallery presentation in Atlanta since 2011, marks a significant and poignant homecoming for the artist.