Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz Turned Collecting Art Into a Mission - Time Magazine

When Alicia Keys and Kaseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean first started collecting art together well over a decade ago, they were mostly just doing it for the love of the game. “We started collecting without a mission, to be honest,” Dean says. “We were collecting because we love art. We were collecting because it was something amazing to do together.” 

Now, more than 130 pieces from the married couple’s personal trove—which they refer to as the Dean Collection—are being shown in museums across the U.S. in a traveling exhibition called “Giants.” As the name suggests, the featured works loom large, both literally and figuratively: a hulking tire wrapped in chains by Arthur Jafa, a painted diptych of BMX bike riders popping wheelies by Amy Sherald, vibrant photography from the streets of New York City shot by Jamel Shabazz. The selected works make up only a small fraction of the thousand-plus holdings the couple has acquired over time. 

Since opening at the Brooklyn Museum in 2024, “Giants” has made stops in four other American cities, with still more planned across the globe through 2031. The show broke attendance records at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in August by attracting more than 25,000 people in the almost four months it was there.

Keys, 45, and Dean, 48, are towering figures themselves. She is a 17-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter; he is a DJ, rapper, and producer with a Grammy of his own. All things considered, it’s not much of a surprise that the pair has become so deeply immersed in the art world. As Dean says, “Art and music are brothers and sisters.”

It was the connection between these two creative universes that allowed the couple to zero in on a mission for the Dean Collection: they would use it to celebrate and uplift living visual artists, especially those who are Black, by creating a collection that felt like a family. Keys and Dean began to develop deeper relationships with the artists whose work they were collecting. They visited studios and brought their five children along; they answered late-night phone calls; they offered advice when they could.

“What got us a lot of love and credibility was being human and not transactional,” says Dean. Throughout the time they have been collecting, Keys says, “We’ve been able to develop a relationship with the artist that’s really from a pure place, and there’s really a friendship there. There’s a mutual respect.”

“We’ve always been in a different state of mind just because we are also artists,” she adds. “So the way we relate to artists is going to naturally be different than anybody else.”

Their shared music knowledge has also allowed Keys and Dean to bring fresh perspectives to the business side of art. Visual artists do not typically receive royalties, at least in the U.S., when their work is resold through an auction house, gallery, or private sale. If a collector buys a painting for $10,000 and sells it for $1 million one year later, the artist never sees a penny of the windfall. 

“We never could understand that,” Dean says. Musicians typically receive royalties anytime their work is reproduced or used commercially. “Why should the rules apply for us and not for the visual artists?”

On Sept. 9, the couple announced Deans’ Choice—a groundbreaking elective program through Bonhams auction house that allows U.S.-based sellers to direct a percentage of proceeds to the living artist behind a sold work. Even if only a handful of sellers choose to participate, “we already won,” Dean says. “This is the beginning of something amazing, and we feel that a lot of people will do the right thing.” 

Deans’ Choice was a dream that took seven years to become reality, the couple says, but their desire to do right by the artists they patronize has only grown stronger in that time. “We can’t come in and just break the rules,” Dean says. “But we could start to change things that we don’t like.”

“The ideal industry for any creative person should be a place where they are completely empowered,” Keys says. “The Dean Collection is by the artist, for the artist, with the people.”