RICHMOND, Va. — Music power couple Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz (born Kasseem Daoud Dean) were in Richmond Tuesday night to celebrate the opening of their exhibit Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys. Giants, which officially opens November 22 and runs through March 1, 2026 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, includes around 130 objects and iconic works of art by nearly 40 “giants” of the art world, according to the museum.
“They are creatives who came from the from the pavement, if you will, and they understand the transformative power of art. So to support other creatives, whether they’re in the music industry or in the visual arts, is something that’s really near and dear to their heart,” Valerie Cassel Oliver, the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, said about the Deans and their art collection. “What I found most intriguing about this exhibition is that it wasn’t just a vanity project. Their collection was not just transactional, that they had relationships with artists, they provided platforms for those artists, and they all want to share that collection with the public, to let them understand the possibilities that exist, the Giants inside of all of us.”
In addition to paintings, photographs, and sculptures, VMFA visitors can expect to see the Deans’ albums, musical equipment, and BMX bikes.
“I hope [museum guests] will see works that move them, that speak to them, that they will want to come back and see again and again. I hope that it inspires them that they really understand the power of creative expression, however they choose to express themselves,” Cassel Oliver said. “What’s wonderful about Richmond is that, in my opinion, it’s a city that is still transforming. This museum in particular has been a big part of that transformation. So to continue that conversation going, we want to be as an institution, a museum for all people, for all Virginians. And we really want people to understand the transformative power of art. So it just aligned so closely with the ethos of this institution.”
Tickets to Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys are available here.
Artists featured in Giants 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.
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