Photograph by Derek White/Getty Images for High Museum of Art
The party was already in full swing by the time Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz appeared. It was opening night for Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys, a traveling exhibit featuring a selection of the couple’s extensive art collection, and Atlanta had turned out for the occasion. With pulsing beats filling the lobby atrium—courtesy of DJs Runna and Princess Cut—a crowd of hundreds of stylish Atlantans had descended on the High Museum of Art to schmooze, dance, and enjoy the work of dozens of celebrated Black artists, from Gordon Parks to Amy Sherald.
As currents of guests floated from one end of the museum to the other, a scrum of photographers, bulbs flashing, announced the arrival of the guests of honor. Keys, in sunglasses and a black Safiyaa blazer accented in asymmetrical yellow, stopped to greet friends and admirers, one hand attached to her husband, Swizz Beatz (a.k.a Kasseem Dean), in a cream blazer and a diamond-encrusted chain. Ushered slowly through the crowd by security, the couple made their way up to the DJ table, where they welcomed guests to the Atlanta exhibit of Giants—its second stop on a national tour that began at the Brooklyn Museum.
Photograph by Derek White/Getty Images for High Museum of Art
“This collection is your collection,” Swizz Beatz, who moved to Atlanta from the Bronx when he was a teenager, told the crowd. “We had to bring it my backyard, Atlanta. Atlanta saved my life, and this is just a small gift that I’m able to give back with my wife.” He passed the mic to Keys, who said with a smile, “The love in Atlanta is real!” After her remarks, where she thanked Rand Suffolk and others who made the Giants exhibit possible, there was a surprise musical performance: a round of “Happy Birthday” for Swizz Beatz, who was turning 46. A cart overflowing with cupcakes was wheeled out for the celebration, and with that, the couple headed to the elevators to check out the exhibit above.
Photograph by Nykieria Chaney/Getty Images
Photograph by Derek White/Getty Images for High Museum of Art
Giants, which is on view at the High through January 19, 2025, is a jubilant tribute to contemporary Black art, celebrating both the visual artists it showcases and the musicians who cultivated the collection. The sweeping exhibition—ranging from ceiling-grazing paintings by Kehinde Wiley and Maleko Mokgosi, to a bedroom-sized mixed-media installation by Ebony Patterson, to a series of BMX bikes acquired by Swizz Beatz, a wheel-enthusiast since childhood—is only a sample of the couple’s extensive holdings, reflecting a mere ten percent of their art collection. Kimberli Gant, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Brooklyn Museum, was charged with selecting the work for the exhibit, which opened in Brooklyn last February.
“The Deans were incredibly generous opening their doors to me,” Gant told Atlanta. “We were actually on the same page for a lot of the work we wanted to select. This was their first time showing the collection, so they did look to us to give them some guidance.” Gant had recently curated Spike Lee: Creative Sources, a Brooklyn Museum exhibit of work from Lee’s personal collection, which she said gave her some ideas about how to approach Giants.
Photograph by Derek White/Getty Images for High Museum of Art
The goal of the show, Gant said, is really simply a celebration of the artists themselves: a perspective on the world as seen through Black creativity and thought. “Let me introduce you to people you may think you know in a small way—but you definitely don’t know this side of them,” she said. “Ultimately I want people to feel good while they’re in this show: joyous, interested, and curious.”
Photograph by Nykieria Chaney/Getty Images
Photograph by Derek White/Getty Images for High Museum of Art
In his welcoming remarks for the show’s opening, Swizz Beatz acknowledged that “art collector” is not an appellation Black Americans were always allowed or expected to claim. “It was hard to put together this collection,” he said. “A lot of works you see [in this exhibit] we had to fight to get—not because we couldn’t afford them, but because they weren’t used to us buying works on this type of level.”
Then he smiled, nodding his head to the cheering crowd. “But now we’re at that level, and now we’re going to share them with everyone in this room.”
