The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego is showcasing the Deans’ collection, a West Coast first featuring more than 130 artworks.
“Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys” will open Saturday, April 18, at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, taking over most of the La Jolla institution’s space with more than 130 works of art by 37 Black American and diasporic artists.
Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys, also referred to as the Deans (Swizz Beatz is legally Kaseem Dean), live in La Jolla; the “Giants” exhibit, organized by the Brooklyn Museum in 2024, is the West Coast debut of the Dean collection.
Le déjeuner sur l’herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires, 2010 by Mickalene Thomas/The Dean Collection, courtesy of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys
The installation includes “all kinds of exciting types of artwork, including photography, painting, immersive installation and sculpture,” MCASD associate curator Amy Crum said at a press preview April 15.
Weaving the exhibit together are two features new to MCASD: a playlist curated by Swizz Beatz and colorfully-painted walls setting the backdrop, an intentional invitation to stay longer, Crum said.
“Giants” takes on many meanings in the exhibit, from the literal size of many of the pieces and the scope of the gallery space used to the magnitude of conversational themes, said Brooklyn Museum curator Kimberli Gant, in addition to referencing the creative output of the Deans and the dozens of other artists included.
The exhibition begins with “Becoming Giants,” honoring the Deans’ “creative beginnings,” Crum said, both as artists and art collectors, featuring musical equipment, BMX bikes and more.
The items showcase the idea that while the rest of the show is rooted in traditional art forms, commonplace items can be collected and treasured as well, Gant said.
The next room honors artists who have come before the Deans, Gant said, as well as younger artists beginning to show global reach.
Father, 2019 by Tschabalala Self (born 1990)/Courtesy of the artist, Pilar Corrias, London and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich/Vienna
The subsequent rooms provoke “Giant Conversations,” the curators said, through the exhibiting of pieces that celebrate Blackness while critiquing society, a joyful juxtaposition seen in works like that of Ebony G Patterson, whose “incredibly seductive” installation of childhood memories camouflages bullet-like holes representing gun violence.
Downstairs, the “Giants” theme continues with larger-scale pieces by artists like Derrick Adams, Titus Kaphar, Meleko Mokgosi, and Arthur Jafa, whose “Big Wheel I” (2018) is an 8,000-pound tire sculpture that most museums would struggle to find room for, Crum said.
The “impactful” piece – like the others around it – “forces you to sit with it” and consider its message, she said.
“Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys” will run through Sunday, Aug 9 and will be shown with the MCASD focus show “The Dean Collection Presents: Hometown Heroes,” which features the Deans’ recent acquisition of three photographers from San Diego in dialog with works from three artists in MCASD’s permanent collection.
Looking for more La Jolla events? Head to our Events page for the best goings-on.
