Offered at Sotheby's auction house

An artist makes miniature models of homes and “shops” from New York

The artist creates pieces that are inspired by ordinary urban settings, but which shape the landscape of the metropolis.

A.F.B

Danny Curtis excels at transforming scenes and landmarks taken from daily life in New York, imprinted with its hip-hop culture, into miniature models, and this hobby has developed, thanks to his success, so the price of his products has risen and has become required by rap stars, and the focus of an auction at Sotheby's.

The 42-year-old artist says, while sitting among various “hardware” in his studio in Bushwick, one of the Brooklyn counties, “We remain children throughout our lives … who does not like games?

Who does not like miniatures?».

On his table, a work-in-progress is an exact replica of a faded, dirty brick façade.

Near the windows, a plastic box serves as a basketball basket.

And the forty-year-old artist explains, while working with polystyrene: “This represents my childhood (...) Everything looked like this, deserted and empty,” “Drugs were very widespread in the neighborhood.”

Another of his recent creations is an unassuming Chinese restaurant with a damaged yellow sign, and walls of violet and red stone dotted with graffiti.

And in front of the establishment — the real one — still Danny Curtis, hat over his round face and clad in a black jacket, grinningly recalls how New York rapper Joel Ortiz, who grew up nearby, wanted the figurine no matter what.

Ortiz offered to buy it for “$10,000,” Curtis recalled, “I sold my first piece for $30, and I was very happy.”

The artist creates pieces inspired by ordinary urban spaces (those little things that we pass through every day), which we end up forgetting, but which shape the landscape of the big city.

One of the artist's first pieces was a miniature replica of the white ice-cube refrigerators bearing the word "ICE" on the sidewalks of many grocery stores, often covered in graffiti, sticky notes, or large posters that Curtis made sure to display with his brush. .

Also in his collection is the ice cream truck that young New Yorkers flock to as soon as they hear its music, which appeared in Spike Lee's 1989 movie "Do The Right Thing".

And if Curtis restores in his miniature scenes entrenched in the memory of New Yorkers and arouses their nostalgia for the past, he also adds to them small models of the most famous local rappers such as the Notorious Big or Wu Tang Clan.

Danny Curtis was not originally an artist, but the pandemic changed his life, prompting him to focus more seriously on his hobby to turn it into a source of livelihood, after working in trade and construction, as well as in a homeless shelter.

And soon he started in this field when he published for the first time pictures of his products on social networks.

The “Mass Appeal” artistic production company, of which the rap star Nas is considered one of its faces, asked him for a miniature model of the radio and cassette tapes for the album cover of the rapper “DJ Premier”.

Last March, four of his pieces were also included in the "hip-hop" auction at Sotheby's, including an ice cream truck sold for $2,200.

Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news