Danny Cortes

Downstairs

Van Der Plas Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Danny Cortes entitled Disappearing Urban World.

Disappearing Urban World showcases nostalgic remembrances of the city that Cortes grew up with, pieces of a rapidly changing landscape that are thus immortalized through his work. In a New York Times article, Cortes notes “I love everything abandoned, everything rusty, dirty. When you pass by a dumpster, most people usually don’t take time to stop, breathe, forget about your daily life in New York and the hustle and bustle. Take your time, look around. You can see beauty in a rust drip.” Cortes’s miniatures shed light on urban beauty, generating a new perspective towards the otherwise unnoticed corners of New York City. “If we take time to notice everything around us, we are surrounded by inspiration.” Cortes brings his inspiration forward for the viewer to realize themself as surrounded by a beauty that can, while involved with it in the everyday, sometimes go unnoticed. But when viewed through the eye of Cortes becomes what opens us as human beings to a greater sense of what can transcend, of what can bring one to the world that carries such beauty and our place in it, and how this world tells our story. “Every piece has a story behind it; whether it’s a discarded cigarette butt or a bit of chewing gum on the sidewalk - everything has a story to tell.” Danny Cortes tells our human story through the captured beauty of the street corner and the curb, where we live work and walk.