Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys at the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla

by Patricia Frischer 

Ebony G. Patterson

What makes this a must-see exhibition is that Kasseem "Swizz Beatz" Dean and Alicia Keys have a home in La Jolla and although only a small part of the collection is in the house, about 10% of the 1000 art works they own i.e. 140 pieces by 40 artists,  are on display in our own Museum of Contemporary Art Museum. This is the only west coast venue for the show that started in Brooklyn, New York and has now been at five venues. We expect lots of Los Angeles art lovers will be visiting before the end of the exhibition August 9^th.

Keys and Dean have been married since 2010 and the collection was founded in 2014. This is not just a family collection, but it is a cultural platform because of the ethics that they bring to their acquiring practice.   If they sell a work, a portion of the sales goes back to the artist. If the artist wants to borrow any of the works from the collection, they are immediately granted that right. Artists have often stayed in one of their homes, been invited to dine and generally supported. In the music world, royalties are a regular part of the income of the creator, so they recognized that does not happen in the visual art world. They want their collection to be a legacy for their artists  and a legacy for their blended family as well. 

Yes, they focus on Black contemporary art and artists from the diaspora, but their strategy is to look at the art first, not the color or the price tag. The show is titled Giants fittingly because there are a large number of very large works in the show. Sometimes, you have to be large to be heard as we all know. There are giants of the art world including for example : Jean-Michel Basquiat, Nick Cave, Gordon Parks, Ebony G. Patterson, Mickalene Thomas, and Kehinde Wiley just to name a very few. But the concept is to encourage giant ideas, giant conversations, giant audiences, and to encourage everyone to be their own giant selves. Keys and Dean are giant collectors and they want to encourage black collectors to collect artists of color.

Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys is organized by Kimberli Gant, the Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, and Indira A. Abiskaroon, the Curatorial Assistant of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, where the exhibition debuted. The coordinating curator for the exhibition at MCASD is Associate Curator, Amy Crum. There is an Official Exhibition Playlist. Do take the time to see the video interview of the Keys and Dean on the lower level of the exhibition near the elevator. A similar interview* is included below, but seeing the big screen for this giant exhibition is worthwhile. 

We highly recommend this exhibition and suggest you take a leaf out of the Dean's book and have a "Just Because" viewing party and go with friends. 

Ebony G. Patterson

Amy Sherald

Gerald Moreles

A piano used by Alicia Keys early in her career

Gordon Parks

Kehinde Wiley

Esther Mahlangu

Jean-Michel Basquiat

 

Deborah Roberts

Deborah Roberts

Frida Orupabo

Tschabalala Self

Barkley L. Hendricks

Kwame Brathwaite

Nick Cave

Nick Cave

Deana Lawson

Hassan Hajjaj

Mickalene Thomas

Derrick Adams

                                                 

Derrick Adams

Nina Chanel Abney

Titus Kaphar

Meleko Mokgosi 

Meleko Mokgosi 

Arthur Jafa

Other artist in this exhibition: Radcliffe Bailey, Ernie Barnes,  Jarvis Boyland, Jordan Casteel,  Jerome Lagarrigue,  Odili Donald Odita, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Zohra Opoku,  Jamel Shabazz,  Malick Sidibé, Lorna Simpson, Sanlé Sory, Vaughn Spann, Henry Taylor, Hank Willis Thomas, Qualeasha Wood, Kennedy Yanko and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.  

Kasseem "Swizz Beatz" Dean and Alicia Keys

*

A variation of the video in the exhibition created by the Brooklyn Museum

Hometown Heroes  includes artists recently acquired by Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz. Pimental and Cruz were discovered at the Por Vida coffee shop in Barrio Logan by Chata who exposed the Dean and Keys to their work. 

Chata

MJ Pimentel

Arthur Cruz

Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys
Hometown Heroes
On View until August 9
Museum of Contemporary Arts San Diego
700 Prospect St., La Jolla, CA 92037
Thursday—Saturday: 11AM—7PM, Sunday: 11AM—5PM