Museums aren’t always known for creating a buzz.
It’s not often that a museum’s website crashes because so many people are trying to buy tickets at the same time.
But such was the excitement around the opening party for “Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys,” that the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s website was temporarily unavailable.
That sold-out preview party occurs Friday night, with the famous couple — who live in La Jolla — in attendance with anyone who shelled out for $125 tickets. Attendees will get the first look at the Giants exhibit full of art by Black artists the pair consider “giants.”
Brooklyn Museum curator Kimberli Gant, left, and MCASD associate curator Amy Crum stand in front of a section of “Democratic Intuition” by Meleko Mokgosi. (Photo by Drew Sitton/Times of San Diego)It opens to the public for a special free day on Saturday.
Although the name of the exhibition describes the artists, much of the artwork in the Giants exhibition truly is impressive in scale. It was a logistical feat to transport the collection across coasts and then find space inside MCASD for it.
A 164-foot long painting on the topic of democracy in Southern Africa by Botswanan artist Meleko Mokgosi spirals through two rooms.
Half of the exhibit is on the negative third floor, the museum’s lowest level, because it is the only place reinforced enough to hold an 8,000 pound Arthur Jafa sculpture of a monster truck tire.
“The scale of it adds a sense of ‘You cannot miss me, I am here,’” explained Kimberli Gant, curator at the Brooklyn Museum who originally organized the traveling exhibition of art collected by Kasseem and Alicia Dean, stage names Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys.
The Deans collect all types of art, but Gant initially approached them about highlighting their Black Diaspora art as a way to challenge what can be on museum walls. In total, 37 Black American and diasporic artists are part of the exhibit making its West Coast premiere this weekend.
Gordon Parks’ photographs are on a bright red wall. (Photo by Drew Sitton/Times of San Diego)Now having brought the show to five museums since 2024, Gant enjoys seeing how different physical spaces emphasize different aspects of the work. Local curators might pair things together she never would have imagined, bringing forth new meaning. The collection is the same at each stop, but the conversations between the pieces shift.
San Diego is the first city to translate placards into Spanish and has specific West Coast themes.
With the Deans’ local ties, they also brought in a second exhibition, “The Dean Collection Presents: Hometown Heroes.”
Swizz Beatz bought out an entire Barrio Logan gallery photography show in February from MJ Pimentel and Oscar Cruz. Those Dean Collection photos are displayed alongside pieces in the museum’s permanent collection from other regional Latino and Indigenous artists.
The Deans had stipulations in how their Giants collection would be displayed. Swizz Beatz curated a playlist, which he remade for a more West Coast sound.
Instead of the white walls of most art museum’s, the couple insisted museums paint their walls in bold colors. Amy Crum, associate curator at MCASD, said the “crazy colors,” some emerald, red, teal and blush walls, were highly unusual for the museum.
“The color, in combination with the playlist, all that is intentional,” Crum said. “That’s something that came from the Deans, was this idea that it feels more welcoming, more playful, and invites you to sit and stay a little longer.”
An installation of “…they were just hanging out you know…talking about… (…when they grow up…)” by Jamaican artist Evony Patterson shows joyful children who are, upon closer inspection, riddled with bullet holes. (Photo by Adam Reich/Courtesy of Monique Meloche Gallery and the Studio Museum in Harlem)The first room, called Becoming Giants, is the only to cash in on the Deans’ cultural cachet by directly addressing their status as world-famous musicians as well as their approach to art and collection.
Their views are non-heirarchical, so a colorful BMX bike holds just as much interest as massive depictions of the couple by Kehinde Wiley, the painter behind President Barack Obama’s official portrait.
“It’s all sort of considered art for them,” Crum said.
Above some signed memorabilia sits the musicians’ motto for the exhibit, “By the artists, for the artists, with the people.”
Gant explained the couple’s philosophy towards art collection. They build long-term, ongoing relationships with visual artists that can fuel their careers. The Deans have offered commissions, such as for Mokgosi’s painting, so artists can create the biggest piece of their careers. In essence, artists supporting artists.
“Artists, if given the opportunity, whether it is in space, whether it is obviously monetary and resources, an artist’s vision can become beyond what they might even imagine,” Gant said.
It’s not only scale and achievement that makes the name Giants apt. There is also a sense of expanse among the 130 artworks. The Deans hold the largest private collection of photographs by Gordon Parks, the “Life” magazine photojournalist who documented Black American life and the civil rights movement from the 1940s to ‘70s.
Selections of Parks’ photos fill a wall in the second room of the exhibition, with iconic photos of Muhamad Ali and the March on Washington but also his more stylistic and commercial art.
From there, the next room was of particular focus for San Diego curators. It features paintings of Jamaica’s coastline next to “Floater 74” by Derrick Adams depicting a pool scene.
MCASD wants Black visitors to see themselves on the museum’s walls, but also in a Southern California mainstay, water, while visiting. (Photo by Drew Sitton/Times of San Diego)“We are thinking about, not only are you seeing yourself represented on the walls, but hopefully you’re seeing yourself represented at the beach and outside and participating in what Southern California has to offer,” Crum said.
Black Americans have experienced lasting effects from a history of lack of swimming access and stigma from historic public pool segregation. These celebratory pieces can spark nuanced conversation while also depicting raw joy.
“Everyone takes art so seriously, which you should. It’s an incredible platform,” Gant said. “But let’s not also forget that there is celebration and joy and care and thought as well, and you can smile and have a good time with it.”
“Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys” will be at MCASD, located at 700 Prospect St. in La Jolla, through Aug. 9.
MCASD is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. General admission tickets are $25, San Diego and Tijuana residents pay $20, students, educators and seniors over 55 qualify for $15 tickets and the museum is free for those under age 25.
Find tickets at mcasd.org/visit/mcasd.
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