Alicia Keys, Swizz Beatz Art On Display At Brooklyn Museum

BROOKLYN, NY — Famed married musicians Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz also have a knack for collecting art, and their celebrated collection will hit the Brooklyn Museum in February.

Hundreds of pieces from the couples' Dean Collection, celebrated by museum personnel as one of the world's "most important collections of contemporary art," will hang in the museum's walls between Feb. 10 and July 7, 2024.

And the exhibit will offer a window into the artists' creative processes and relationship to some artistic giants.

“Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys have been among the most vocal advocates for Black creatives to support Black artists through their collecting, advocacy, and partnerships. In the process, they have created one of the most important collections of contemporary art,” said Anne Pasternak, Shelby White and Leon Levy Director.

Keys and Kasseem Dean, better known as Swizz Beatz, both grew up in New York, and their creative lives will also sit on display in Brooklyn. The couple has been collecting art, music equipment, BMX bikes and albums for over 20 years, museum representatives said.

And they're primarily motivated by uplifting artists of color, the couple has said; the collection includes works from a "collection of multigenerational Black diasporic artists," museum representatives said.

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The exhibition, titled "Giants," will boasts works from Jean-Michel Basquiat, Brooklyn-based artist Derrick Adams, cinematographer and "Crooklyn" collaborator Arthur Jafa, photographer Gordon Parks and painter Kehinde Wiley, who painted Barack Obama's famed portrait.

The couple in 2018 launched an art grant offering $5,000 to 20 artists — with four artists receiving up to $30,000 for their work.

"This is what everybody’s supposed to be doing; creating opportunities for other people to have opportunities. We’re all supposed to be playing that part," Swizz Beatz told Hyperallergic at the time.

The new exhibit comes during a period of growth for the Brooklyn Museum, which recently announced acquiring over 300 new pieces spanning 5,500 years to its collection. The new pieces expanded the museum's diversity and contemporary art collection, representatives said.

Spike Lee's personal collection also remains on display at Brooklyn Museum through February 4, including dozens of movie posters, sports memorabilia and awards.