When Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean) and Alicia Keys bought a home in San Diego in 2019, culture creatures buzzed about the potential impact. Expectations were tempered; we’d seen this before. A litany of celebrities own homes in San Diego, but most understandably treat them as hideouts to escape public life—not as base camps from which to explore local goings-on.
But the Deans are different. In February, Mr. Beatz bought out an entire photography exhibition at Por Vida coffee shop in Barrio Logan. The gesture signaled a genuine interest in the San Diego art world—in an artistically prolific but often overlooked neighborhood, at that. Days later, they announced the only West Coast showing of Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys at MCASD. This peek into their personal art collection, featuring more than 130 genre-defying works by Black American and diasporic heavyweights under one public roof, is a metaphorical opening of their home.
Courtesy of Amy Sherald & Hauser Wirth. Photo Credit: Joseph Hyde.
Originally organized by the Brooklyn Museum, Giants delivers the piercing photojournalism of Gordon Parks, the raw charge of Jean-Michel Basquiat, the interior emotion of Amy Sherald (we’re still obsessed with her portrait of Michelle Obama), the radical pastiche of Mickalene Thomas, and the transformative work of 33 other mostly-living artists. From photography and painting to collage and sculpture, Giants promises to have us up in our feelings. It seems obvious the Deans collect—and think it’s important to share—art that at once provokes and challenges, champions and celebrates. We plebes are certain to enjoy a collective historical interrogation we would otherwise not get to see, and the Deans are showing us their commitment to—and investment in—art by the people, of the people, for the people.
We’re lucky this dynamic duo has chosen to live in San Diego, to engage with its culture and people, and to let us view the masterpieces that usually hang on their walls. Because what good is art if people can’t see it?
Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys is on view at MCASD from April 18 to August 9.
Aaryn Belfer is a writer and editor specializing in nonfiction across art, architecture, and culture. Once upon a time, she wrote a provocative column for San Diego CityBeat (RIP). She was a runner up in the 2025 Matchbook Stories contest at the San Diego Central Library and is irrationally happy about it. Currently in her Soft Girl Era, Aaryn has expensive taste in (mostly flat) shoes and will choose a great art exhibit or live jazz concert over almost anything else. Except, possibly, Javier Bardem.
