Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz bring Black art ‘Giants’ to the Minneapolis Institute of Art

In the Twin Cities art scene this weekend, Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz’s “Giants” collection brings together nearly 100 pieces by Black artists. FKM Gallery invites you into the digital world of a Japanese trans artist, while the Indigenous Roots Cultural Art Center hosts a Filipino artist’s first solo art show. At the MacPhail Center for Music, a performance festival celebrates a new generation of composers of color. 

Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz’ Black art collection lands in Minneapolis

The Minneapolis Institute of Art is hosting “Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys,” showcasing nearly 100 works by more than 40 Black, diasporic artists from their personal collection. 

“For them, the artists are the Giants,” said Kimberli Gant, curator of contemporary art at the Brooklyn Museum, where the exhibit debuted in February. “We wouldn’t have curators and collections and institutions without the artists, the creatives, the makers who actually bring these objects into existence.”

Rapper and producer Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean) and singer-songwriter Alicia Keys, married since 2010, have been collecting art for more than 20 years, acquiring works by pioneering Black artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Gordon Parks. Their collection also showcases contemporary artists of color, including photographer Jamel Shabazz, mixed media artist Ebony G. Patterson, and painters Derrick Adams and Esther Mahlangu, among others.

“The exhibition not only honors the artists but also provides an opportunity for the public to learn about these individuals,” Gant said. “There are artists everywhere — from all backgrounds, geographies, styles, generations, and ethnicities — and we need to expand our art history knowledge.” 

In addition to artworks, visitors will also see personal items from the Deans, such as a piano featured in Keys’ music videos and Swizz Beatz’s early DJ equipment and BMX bikes. These artifacts serve as a reminder that the boundaries between different forms of art, such as music and visual art, are often fluid. 

“Artists are regularly at the forefront of social change — seeing the world, representing the world and critiquing the world before the majority of others,” Gant said. “Become a collector. You don’t have to buy from a gallery. Be a patron by supporting young artists in your own backyard.”

A digital journey through Japanese history and trans identity

FKM Gallery, short for Faux Kinetic Memory (“a memory that feels real but isn’t”), is hosting “Into My Eye’s Horizon,” a digital art exhibit by Japanese trans artist Sarisa Kojima. The show reflects her personal journey, from her minimalist childhood in Japan, to her life in Thailand, where a culture of excess thrived.

“I had two different views growing up — minimalism and maximalism,” Kojima said. “Thai people know how to mix many tastes into one delicious taste. In Japan, people only need one taste to make it delicious.”

Kojima’s work leans into maximalism, bursting with vibrant colors and layered in symbolism, and consistently centering a woman in each piece. Her work is guided by her background in art history and Japanese woodcut printmaking, exploring the lasting impact of the 1945 Hiroshima atomic bombing in her series  “Hiroshima 78,” the Buddhist concepts of death and impermanence in “I am What I am,” and envisioning idealized worlds through her own eyes in “Freedom I Am Asking For.” 

“In Thailand, even though they were open to me being transgender, it’s a little bit difficult to get a job, so I quit being an artist for a while and focused on paying my bills with software programming,” Kojima said. “During COVID, I saw people making money from digital art and I’m like, ‘I have an iPad too.’ That was the first time I actually felt connected to the art I was making.”

FKM Gallery will host an artist talk with Kojima at 7 p.m. Friday, March 6 (text 612-257-0380 to RSVP).

Music festival celebrates composers of color

The MacPhail Center for Music will host a Women’s History Month Festival, highlighting works by more than 30 classical and contemporary composers who are Black, Indigenous, women of color, or gender-marginalized. 

The festival begins at 10 a.m., with MacPhail students and faculty showcasing compositions by South Korean composers Seuunghee Lee and Jungyoon Wie, Indigenous composers Beverly McKiver and Renata Yazzie, and Black musicians Roberta Flack and Florence Quivar. The program will also feature works by artists from Brazil, Argentina, Japan and China.

At 7 p.m., a concert will celebrate 25 years of compositions by MacPhail faculty member Sarah Miller. 

Immigrant experience told through acrylic landscapes

Filipino artist and architectural designer Judy Anne De Veyra, founder of Meraki Art & Poetry, is hosting her first solo exhibit featuring acrylic landscape paintings and poetry written in both English and Tagalog. Her work draws inspiration from her experiences as a first-generation immigrant.

“Having moved to the U.S. at age 10, I have come to understand what it means to navigate and embrace a rich blend of cultures and environments, and how this perspective can be expressed through art,” De Veyra said. “If I can touch a single soul and make them feel seen, heard, and understood through my art and poetry, then I have succeeded.”

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