The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), the foremost contemporary art institution in San Diego, will be the sole West Coast venue to host Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys (Saturday, April 18 – Sunday, August 9). Set to the soundtrack of Marvin Gaye, this landmark exhibition will include more than 130 works of art, including the debut of a new large-scale piece by Mickalene Thomas, from the personal collection of musical and cultural icons Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean) and Alicia Keys.

Organized by the Brooklyn Museum in 2024, Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys will feature 37 Black American and diasporic artists from Africa, Europe, the United States, and the Caribbean whose monumental works tower in both scale, conceptual depth and technical skill. The Deans have fostered meaningful relationships with the wide array
of artists included in the exhibition and the mission of Giants is a testament to their philosophy: “By the artists, for the artists, with the people.” The exhibition’s run at MCASD is the inaugural display of the collection in San Diego.

“Giants offers an exciting opportunity for MCASD to participate more meaningfully in crucial dialogues about Black joy, resistance, and cultural identity in contemporary art,” said Amy Crum, Associate Curator at MCASD. “Many of the artists in the exhibition are already in MCASD’s collection and the exhibition will give our visitors a chance to experience them in a new way.”

Thematically organized, the exhibition opens with an introduction to the Deans’ creative lives and their inspirational journey. “Becoming Giants” honors the Deans’ introduction to collecting with a display of BMX bikes that recall Mr. Dean’s upbringing in the Bronx alongside a piano used by Alicia Keys early on in her career. The next section, “On the Shoulders of Giants” honors the intergenerational legacy of the artists who have come before. These towering figures of the artworld include figures like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kwame Brathwaite, Esther Mahlangu, and Gordon Parks whose work continues to inspire subsequent generations of painters and photographers.

The next sections invite viewers to participate in “Giant Conversations,” a double-pronged section that explores the dual notions of “critiquing society” and “celebrating Blackness.” Works in this first portion point a critical lens on social issues like homelessness, as in the paintings of Henry Taylor, or anti-queer discrimination in Nigeria in the charcoal drawings of Toyin Ojih Odutola. In contrast, the second section centers on capturing the exuberance of Black life as in Jamel Shabazz’s playful photographs of Black New Yorkers in the 1980s or in Derrick Adams’ mixed-media panorama of playful pool floaters.

In keeping with the show’s title, a number of large-scale works by artists like Derrick Adams, Arthur Jafa, Titus Kaphar, Meleko Mokgosi, Amy Sherald and Nina Chanel Abney are found throughout the exhibition which speak through their “giant presence” and thought-provoking content. Not included in any of the previous venues, a monumental 25-foot work by Mickalene Thomas has been added to the exhibition that will be shown with the Dean Collection for the first time as part of MCASD’s installation. The work is inspired by Edouard Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l’herbe from 1863.

Giants features paintings, photographs, sculptures and installations by nearly 40 Black diasporic artists which include: Nina Chanel Abney, Derrick Adams, Radcliffe Bailey, Ernie Barnes, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jarvis Boyland, Kwame Brathwaite, Jordan Casteel, Nick Cave, Hassan Hajjaj, Barkley L. Hendricks, Arthur Jafa, Titus Kaphar, Jerome Lagarrigue, Deana Lawson, Esther Mahlangu, Meleko Mokgosi, Odili Donald Odita, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Zohra Opoku, Frida Orupabo, Gordon Parks, Ebony G. Patterson, Deborah Roberts, Tschabalala Self, Jamel Shabazz, Amy Sherald, Malick Sidibé, Lorna Simpson, Sanlé Sory, Vaughn Spann, Henry Taylor, Hank Willis Thomas, Mickalene Thomas, Kehinde Wiley, Qualeasha Wood, Kennedy Yanko and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

Giants at MCASD will kick off with a Preview Party open to the public on Friday, April 17 from 6-9PM followed by an After Party at the LaFayette Hotel starting at 10PM. On Saturday, April 18, MCASD will host a Free Public Opening of the exhibition.