Fahamu Pecou: God Snapped When She Made Water and Black Women

In this recent body of work, Pecou expands his ongoing exploration of Blackness by positioning Black women as central figures within a broader cosmology. Drawing from mythology and contemporary culture, the works—ranging from monumental paintings to intricate sculptural objects—reframe Black femininity as a site of reflection and cultural continuity. As Pecou notes, “I decided to challenge myself… to think more broadly about our ideas of Black identity… and use my work as a way to expand the narratives”.

The exhibition includes paintings, works on paper, and sculptural objects that incorporate materials such as gold leaf, hair, chains, and found elements. These materials function not only as formal devices but also as signifiers, referencing adornment, status, ritual, and the layered histories embedded in representations of Black bodies. Across the works, Pecou combines figuration with symbolic patterning and text, creating compositions that are both direct and referential.

Recurring motifs—including crowns, water, cowrie shells, and objects of personal and cultural significance—establish a visual language that connects the individual works while allowing each to operate as a distinct meditation on identity and presence. In several pieces, sculptural elements such as gold chains extend beyond the picture plane, reinforcing the physicality of the work and its engagement with the body.

God Snapped When She Made Water and Black Women builds on Pecou’s established practice while marking a shift in emphasis toward representations of Black women as sites of power, reflection, and cultural continuity. The exhibition invites viewers to consider how beauty, mythology, and identity are constructed, performed, and reclaimed.