Artists Fahamu Pecou (left) and Marcia Jones. (Photo courtesy of the Gantt Center.)

It’s been a minute since denizens of the Queen City have seen artists Fahamu Pecou and Marcia Jones.

Astute art lovers may recognize Pecou and Jones as the first two artists-in-residence at the Harvey Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture. The residence program, which was facilitated in conjunction with McColl Center for Visual Arts, was designed to give artists the time and compensation needed to focus almost totally on their craft for several months.

Pecou (who hails from Atlanta) hit town September 2010 and served a three-month stint with the Gantt; Jones (from the ATL as well) arrived January of this year and also lived and worked (and did some community outreach) in Charlotte for three months.

These first two residencies culminated in a joint exhibition — called Live and In Stereo(Type) — at the Gantt Center, which opened on June 24 and featured work by Jones and Pecou that was created while they worked in the program. (That show, folks might remember, caused a stir locally due to some controversial pieces created by Jones, which emblazoned first lady Michelle Obama’s on the front of fake money that was scattered about images of strippers. Consequently, Jones explained the subtext behind the work in-depth during an artist talk at the Gantt on July 12.)

But since leaving the city shortly after the opening of Live and In Stereo(Type), where have Jones and Pecou been — and, more importantly, what have they been up to? Qcitymetro recently tracked down both artists and got the details about their current (and future) moves.

Art by Fahamu Pecou.

Fahamu Pecou: “Since completing the McColl/Gantt residency, I've been busy concocting my plot to take over the world. Since leaving Charlotte last fall, I've had solo exhibits in Dallas, New York, Paris and Atlanta. I currently have new work featured during Art Basel Miami (Dec. 1-4). Additionally, my performance and mixed media projects have been highly successful, including the creation of a satirical rap group called The Soggy Bottom Boyz. Our debut single/video received over 80,000 hits on Worldstarhiphop and nearly 20,000 on Youtube (and climbing). I also recorded a single and video to promote my exhibit Hard 2 Death in Paris.

Currently on my plate I am working on an exhibition to be mounted at the University of Wisconsin at Osh Kosh in February 2012 as well as returning to Paris in September with a new exhibit. My work has also lead me to seek out additional challenges and methodologies prompting me to pursue my goals or obtaining my Ph.D. in black male studies with a focus on my studio work as research.”

Art by Marcia Jones.

Marcia Jones: “"During my Outreach at the McColl Center for Visual Art, hosted by the Battered Women's Shelter, and my community mural project assigned by the Harvey B. Gantt Center at the Hawthorne School, I became highly aware that I am more an arts advocate than a ‘fine’ artist striving for only gallery notoriety and/or commercial sales. I've returned to Atlanta and am meeting with community centers, alternative institutions, and nonprofit organizations, conducting my Visual Emotion Workshops for women, teenage girls and mothers, and [women at] female detention centers. I find community work and outreach to be more fulfilling for me. The … artist-in-residence program … intersected my aesthetics discernment with my feminist art theory, and that with my community "artivism" goals to produce amazing change in me and those affected."

For more on Jones, visit: www.marciajonesart.com. And for more on Pecou, visit: www.fahamupecouart.com.

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Editor's Note: This article was created as part of the Charlotte Arts Journalism Alliance, a consortium of local media dedicated to writing about the arts scene.

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