Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz continue to take their Giants art exhibit around the world, with the collection now on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Breaking into the art world came with challenges, as they had to learn to navigate the space as new Black collectors from the music industry.
“At least 75% of this show, we had to fight for. A lot of the artists who are our friends fought for us to have these masterpieces and it’s a blessing,” Swizz tells GQ about the obstacles they faced while building the exhibition. “But at the end of the day, we’re not using that as an excuse.”
Instead, Swizz emphasized the importance of creating change through action rather than frustration.
“How can we fix what we don’t like or what doesn’t feel comfortable? How can we change that landscape? And that’s through the work, not through complaining, like, ‘Oh, they’re not doing this,'” he continues. “Let’s stop giving they so much power on things that we need to do for ourselves. Why are we depending on they? Who are they? We know who we are.”
The Giants exhibition officially launched in 2024 and has since showcased the work of Black diasporic artists, but the plan is to eventually expand.
“Yes, we’re Black collectors—but we’re art collectors and we feel that we can represent our tribe and also shine light on other people’s tribes. It was only right to start with our own tribe,” Swizz explains to GQ, before teasing future exhibits.
“We have artists of all colors in our collection, but it was only right to highlight our tribe,” he says. “But we plan on doing Giants 2, 3, 4, 5, 6—keep changing the shows up, maybe change the titles.”
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