Amid Friday night’s closing celebration party in honor of Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s (MCASD) record-breaking art exhibition, two of the guests were brought to tears by the works of Mickalene Thomas.
Lupe Castillón-Mendoza said one of Thomas’ portraits reminded them of their grandmothers. They bonded with another woman in attendance over Thomas’ glitter-infused 2010 work “Le déjeuner sur l’herbe: les trois femmes noires,” which the woman said felt like her and her sisters on a picnic. As the party rolled on, they joined hundreds seeing art with people who looked like them displayed with dignity and grandiosity inside a museum space.
The exhibit featuring massive works by Black American and diasporic artists like Thomas was on display thanks to a loan from the Dean Collection, the personal collection of La Jolla residents and married music icons Swizz Beatz (a.k.a Kasseem Dean) and Alicia Keys.
The titular Dean couple joined hundreds of guests dancing, viewing art and celebrating the closing weekend of “Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys.” House DJ Joe Kay shared footage of the couple dancing with guests during his set on the museum patio.
Earlier in the night, Keys joined Lisane Basquiat, the sister of and co-administrator of renowned artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s estate, for a conversation with ArtLeadHer independent curator Mashonda Tifrere at the beginning of the night. Basquiat and the Deans both have residences in La Jolla, where MCASD is located.
The event was the exclamation point on MCASD’s superlative summer. “Giants” drew in big crowds since its debut in April. In all, over 29,000 people visited the museum, according to San Diego Union-Tribune over the course of the exhibition, the highest amount since the museum reopened after a renovation in 2022. The exhibition drew just under 2,000 people a week — doubling the museum’s typical attendance, the U-T reported.
And thanks to the gift shop with “Giants” merchandise as well as a surge in membership sales, the museum tripled its revenue for the period to an average of $19,579 per week.
The celebrity cache of the Deans certainly contributed to those numbers, as well as the chance to see works from artists like Basquiat and Thomas as well as Kehinde Wiley, Gordon Parks, Esther Mahlangu, Kwame Brathwaite and Derrick Adams who aren’t normally seen in San Diego.
Patrons inside MCASD on Saturday, April 18, 2026 in front of a giant painting by Mickalene Thomas. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Times of San Diego)In total, the exhibit included over 130 works by 37 Black artists. The touring exhibit originated in New York and made its west coast debut in San Diego. Museum admission is free on Sunday, “Giants'” final day in San Diego and on the west coast; its next showing will be at the Indianapolis Museum of Art from September 2026 to February 2027.
Another exhibit curated from the Deans’ personal collection, “Hometown Heroes,” will remain at the museum through Nov. 8. This exhibit features photography by San Diego-based Latino artists drawn from a Barrio Logan photography show that Swizz Beatz bought out in February as well as pieces in the museum’s permanent collection.
Keys’ imprint will also be seen on the local stage soon; the Tony Award-winning musical “Hell’s Kitchen,” which is loosely based on her youth in New York City, is scheduled for an Aug. 11-16 run at the San Diego Civic Theatre.
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