With his nimble hands and childlike eyes, Danny Cortes recreates in miniature the urban settings, steeped in New York's hip-hop culture.
A hobby at the start, which became a source of success among rappers - up to the auction house Sotheby's.
“We never stop being children (...) Who doesn't like toys? Who doesn't like miniatures?
, smiles the 42-year-old artist, sitting in the middle of all kinds of recycled objects, in his studio in Bushwick, a district of Brooklyn.
On his table, a work in progress, a replica of a faded and dirty brick facade.
Near bricked-up windows hangs a plastic crate that serves as a basketball hoop.
"It represents my childhood (...) everything looked like that, abandoned, empty".
"
[There were] a lot of drugs in the neighborhood"
, he describes, working his material, polystyrene.
From $30 to $10,000
Among his other recent creations, a modest Chinese restaurant with a damaged yellow sign and mauve and red brick walls dotted with graffiti.
In front of the establishment, the real one, Danny Cortes, cap on his round face and black jacket, still smiles while telling that the New York rapper Joell Ortiz, who grew up nearby, absolutely wanted to afford it.
The price?
“10,000 dollars”
, replies Danny Cortes.
"The first coin I sold was $30 and I was so happy
," he recalls.
Among his creations, a Chinese restaurant, an ice cube fridge or a piece of furniture on which the letters "ICE" are engraved.
YUKI IWAMURA / AFP
The artist creates collectibles from the most ordinary urban settings,
“those little things we pass by every day”
, which we end up forgetting, but which make up the landscape of the megalopolis.
One of his first signatures is a simple ice cube fridge, a white piece of furniture crossed out with the letters "ICE" that sits on the sidewalks of many grocery stores, most often covered in graffiti, stickers and posters, which he meticulously reproduces with a brush. .
His repertoire also includes the ice cream van, which we see in the film
Do the right thing
(1989) by Spike Lee and whose little New Yorkers still know the sound of the chime.
Typical images nourished by nostalgia on which he adds the effigies of legendary local rappers, such as Notorious BIG or the Wu-Tang Clan.
Dirty and harsh atmosphere
Danny Cortes wasn't always an artist.
But the pandemic has changed his life, pushing him to make a hobby a more assiduous activity, he who had chained trades in sales, construction, or in a homeless shelter.
When he exhibited his first creations on social networks,
"it just took off"
, he summarizes.
The artistic label Mass Appeal, of which rap legend Nas is a figure, commissioned him to model a ghetto-blaster for the cover of a mini-album by DJ Premier (
Hip-Hop 50: Vol 1
).
Last March, four of his works also landed in a "hip-hop" auction at Sotheby's, including an ice cream truck that went for $2,200.
Danny Cortes is successful, especially with rappers.
He has already made a restaurant miniature for the American 2 Chainz.
YUKI IWAMURA / AFP
“He really knows how to capture that grimy, gritty atmosphere in which 1990s hip-hop was born in New York City
,” praises Monica Lynch, former president of the Tommy Boy Records label and consultant for this sale.
Through his work, Danny Cortes also wants to "document" a space "that is constantly changing", in particular his neighborhood of Bushwick, today a trendy haunt of artists and a symbol of a gentrification he does not regret.
“I think it's good, it's safer.
Even though Bushwick will always be Bushwick, there are more opportunities,”
he said.
His art is not limited to Brooklyn.
He also made a miniature replica of an Atlanta restaurant for its owner, rapper 2 Chainz.
