Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz (and Alicia Keys at The Brooklyn Museum)

The Brooklyn Museum is presenting from February 10th to July 7th this unique exhibition featuring more than 100 works by important Black American, African and African diasporic artists including Gordon Parks, Kehinde Wiley, Esther Mahlangu, Barkley L. Hendricks, Lorna Simpson and Amy Sherald and a promised gift of significant works from the Dean Collection will enter the Museum’s permanent collection in celebration of the exhibition.

Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beats and Alicia Keys is the first major exhibition of the world-class art collection owned by musical and cultural icons Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean) and Alicia Keys. From their founding passion for collecting albums, musical equipment and BMX bikes to their present day philosophy of “artists supporting artists” Giants presents a focused selection from the couple’s personal holdings spotlighting works by Black diasporic artists bringing together nearly forty “Giants” of the art world including Nina Chanel Abney, Derrick Adams,Jordan Castel, Esther Mahlangu among others.

The exhibition opens with an introduction to Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys creative lives and their sources of inspiration, born and raised New Yorkers the couple have been making music for decades and have cultivated diverse passions across music, art and culture.

Since the Deans began collecting art over twenty years ago, they have focused on supporting living artists “The collection started not just because we are both art lovers but also because there’s not enough people of color collecting artists of color” Swizz told Cultured Magazine back in 2018.

Paying homage to legendary elderly artists the section “On the shoulders of Giants” features works of artists who have left an indelible mark on the world, the “Giants Conversations” section explores how artists have always critiqued and commented on the world around them, in the last section of the show “Giant Pressence” monumental artworks form an impressive finale in the Museum’s Great Hall atrium.

It is definitely a great exhibit that you cannot miss from February 10th at The Brooklyn Museum.

@titinapenzini

Derrick Adams (born Baltimore, Maryland, 1970).

Woman in Grayscale (Alicia), 2017. Pigmented inkjet

print, 24 × 18 in. (61 × 45.7 cm). The Dean Collection,

courtesy of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys. © 2023

Derrick Adams Studio. (Photo: Glenn Steigelman)

Derrick Adams (born Baltimore, Maryland, 1970).

Man in Grayscale (Swizz), 2017. Pigmented inkjet

print, 24 × 18 in. (61 × 45.7 cm). The Dean Collection,

courtesy of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys. © 2023

Derrick Adams Studio. (Photo: Glenn Steigelman)

Tschabalala Self (born New York, New York, 1990).

Father, 2019. Acrylic, gouache, Flashe, thread, fabric

on canvas, 68 × 50 in. (172.7 × 127 cm). The Dean

Collection, courtesy of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys.

© Tschabalala Self Studio Inc. Courtesy of the artist,

Pilar Corrias, London and Galerie Eva Presenhuber,

Zurich / Vienna. (Photo: Glenn Steigelman)

Kehinde Wiley (born Los Angeles, California, 1977).

Femme piquée par un serpent, 2008. Oil on canvas,

102 × 300 in. (259 × 762 cm). The Dean Collection,

courtesy of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys. © Kehinde

Wiley. (Photo: Glenn Steigelman)

Ebony G. Patterson (born Kingston, Jamaica, 1981). .

. . they were just hanging out . . . you know . . .

talking about . . . ( . . . when they grow up . . .), 2016.

Beads, appliqués, fabric, glitter, buttons, costume

jewelry, trimming, rhinestones, glue, digital prints, 90

× 224 in. (228.6 × 569 cm). The Dean Collection,

courtesy of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys. © Ebony G.

Patterson. Courtesy of the artist, Monique Meloche

Gallery, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. (Photo:

Adam Reich)

Toyin Ojih Odutola (born Ife, Nigeria, 1985). Paris

Apartment, 2016–17. Charcoal, pastel, pencil on

paper, 59 3/8 × 42 in. (150.8 × 106.7 cm). The Dean

Collection, courtesy of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys.

© Toyin Ojih Odutola. Courtesy of the artist and Jack

Shainman Gallery, New York. (Photo: Joshua White /

JWPictures.com)