October 18 - November 15, 2008


opening reception for the artists:
Saturday, October 18, 2008 5-8PM


Fahamu Pecou
Stunt'd Like My Daddy

Working as a graphic illustrator for various rap and hip-hop acts in Atlanta, Fahamu Pecou became interested in the self-marketing and persona building antics of music and television celebrities. Pecou began an active sticker and T-shirt campaign, “Fahamu Pecou is the Shit” which birthed Pecou's art-star persona and filtered into a series of paintings depicting the artist himself on a number of different highbrow art and culture periodicals such as, Artforum, Esopus, Flash Art and Interview. 

His newest body of work, Stunt'd Like My Daddy continues to build on the themes of self-promotion and identity as the "Fahamu Pecou is the Shit" character is literally stripped down, focusing on confronting "the imposition of stereotypes on the black male in the media, art and society (Lil’ Wayne’s - Stuntin’ Like My Dad) in order to rethink black male responsibility - to look beyond the media when trying to define one's self and to embrace individuality as a means of strengthening and building healthy black familes, communities and culture."

Fahamu Pecou is currently included in two museum exhibitions:
I Am a Man - curated by Kevin Powell at the MOCADA, Brooklyn, NY
through January 18, 2009.

Modern Art. Modern Lives. Then + Now
Austin Musem of Art, Austin, Texas
through November 4, 2008

left: Olympic Torches:The Roof is on FYAH, 2008, acrylic on canvas
right: Warn a Brother, 2008, acrylic on canvas

 

Franco Mondini-Ruiz

The Powder Room: new paintings and porcelains

Franco Mondini-Ruiz's installation will be composed of sculpture and paintings arranged in the gallery in a site-specific “botanica” setting similar to the folk-medicine markets that pervade his native San Antonio, Texas. The works range from porcelain statuettes and painted landscapes to piñatas all of which rely on smart visual puns and a Gilded Age sensibility.  With prices that vary greatly (one hundred to several thousand dollars) and a maximal-clutter aesthetic, Mondini-Ruiz's work questions consumerism, presupposes a more democratic art market and regales the preciousness of art objects.

Franco Mondini-Ruiz was born in San Antonio and now lives and works in New York and San Antonio, Texas.  He became a full-time artist in 1995 after giving up a law career.  In 2000, he was included in the Whitney Biennial where he set up a table outside the museum and sold work for 10 cents to 10 dollars.  Recent solo shows include The UCLA Fowler Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MI; Frederieke Taylor Gallery,New York.  He has also been represented in a number of group shows including Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX.


Franco Mondini-Ruiz, Chickens on a Mission, 2008, oil on canvas
Franco Mondini-Ruiz, El Jardin , 2008, vintage porcelain & resin, 14x10x10"

 

PROJECT ROOM

Dawolu Jabari Anderson

Houston artist Dawolu Jabari Anderson creates mixed media works on paper that take products from popular culture together with dark humor to critique the role of the media in manufacturing images of African Americans that commodify their history and experience in modern and contemporary culture.  Anderson's work was featured in the 2006 Whitney Biennial individually as well in the collective Otabenga Jones & Associates, of which he is a founding member.  The collective's work was most recently shown (2008) at the Menil Collection in Houston.