Danny Cortes

Mlynar, Phillip. “Fat Beats: An Oral History.” Red Bull Music Academy. May 31, 2016. https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2016/05/fat-beats-oral-history.

Founded by Joseph Abajian—also known as DJ Jab—in 1994, Fat Beats began as a small independent record store in Manhattan's Lower East Side. Over the next 16 years, Fat Beats would become known as Hip Hop mecca to those New Yorkers in the know. More of a community hub than a record store, Fat Beats would host intimate shows for major label artists in town with lines around the block, as well as being a hub for emerging artists to hang out and connect with their community and potential fans. The present lot is a celebration of that tiny space with all 4 wall covered in vinyl by Brooklyn-native and miniature artist, Danny Cortes.

Brooklyn-based artist Danny Cortes creates intricate miniatures of iconic New York City places and objects that speak to a loving nostalgia for the artist's own childhood haunts and the early 1990s. What began as a creative hobby during the COVID-19 pandemic soon became a way to share the vanishing version of his beloved city with a wider audience thanks to social media. His miniatures include mailboxes, lampposts, Mister Softee trucks handball courts, storefronts, and as represented in the current lot, the iconic New York City newsstand complete with a milkcrate.

Noticing the omnipresent details of urban life all around him and bringing them lovingly to life in his 'toys for adults', Cortes now has a dedicated legion of fans and collectors including sports stars, Hip Hop artists, and—in true hometown fashion—New York City natives who crave a walk down memory lane.