Pick of the Weekend: Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys

Installation view, Giants: Art form the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys, February 10, 2024-July 7, 2024. (Photo: Danny Perez)

OK, we're big fans of Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz over here at Babesta, so when we heard that their art collection was on view at the Brooklyn Museum we had to check it out!

This is our pick of the weekend!

Installation view, Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys, February 10, 2024-July 7, 2024. (Photo: Paula Abreu Pita)

Featured are 98 artworks from major black artists including Gordon Parks, Kehinde Wiley, Ether Mahlangu, Barkley L. Hendricks, Lorna Simpson, Amy Sherald, and so many more. The bright colors, compelling geometry, and pop culture twists had us at hello. It's an important collection not only for its amalgam of top talent but that it's focused on black living artists evoking a sense of community and creative heft that has limitless potential in future collaboration. 

Installation view, Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys, February 10, 2024-July 7, 2024. (Photo: Paula Abreu Pita)

One of my favorites (always) is the work by Nick Cave (Soundsuit, above), an artist who brilliantly brings together the fantasy of fashion and performance with fine art. His sculptures are striking both for their visual appeal and their message --- how black people, particularly men, must wear costumes to protect themselves from violence. 

Amy Sherald (born Columbus, Georgia, 1973). Deliverance, 2022. Oil on linen, each 108 1/4 × 124 1/4 in. (274.8 × 315.5 cm). The Dean Collection, courtesy of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys. © Amy Sherald. Courtesy of Amy Sherald and Hauser & Wirth. (Photo: Joseph Hyde)

Other works include photography of everyday New Yorkers from the 80s to the present by Jamel Shabazz, and what child of the 80s wouldn't immediately be transported back with the BMX bike diptychs by Amy Sherald? 

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)

One's struck by the power and the playfulness weaved throughout this collection (like the 8 foot tall Big Wheel sculpture by Arthur Jafa) --- making it a great family outing to see some amazing art from some of today's most talented artists, and a place to start a conversation about the innumerable social injustices, joys, and traumas that belie the works. 

Let us know if you go and what you thought! https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/ 

Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys is organized by Kimberli Gant, Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, and Indira A. Abiskaroon, Curatorial Assistant, Modern and Contemporary Art.