by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
CHINATOWN, Jan 14 -- As the number of art galleries multiply in NYC's Chinatown, particularly on Henry Street, on the evening of January 14 a crowd gathered in front of the Post Times' narrow storefront.
Inside were mosaic works by Elberto "Sluto" Muller, a show entitled Inter Modal 53 (named against the shipping containers in which what remains of world trade travels).
One mosaic appeared to incorporate a tire, with a frog head on top and legs below. Another was a girl blowing a bubble. Some incorporated photographs.
The reviews of the crowd were generally positive. Outside, a man collected cans in two large plastic bags. Inside, cans of La Croix and Budweiser piled up. The night and the crowd was young.
Inner City Press, its Downtown News Service, will have more reviews.
Previous: October 25, 2025 – In a laundromat a few doors down from an NYPD precinct there is an art show that you might miss even as you look at it.
On the beige walls of the JJ Cleaners & Laundromat there are a dozen or so canvases, the same beige color at the walls.
If you look at them closely, shapes emerge. A car and a truck; a stream of traffic. A bus, or a bench: it's hard to tell, and harder still to get closer to see, as this painting is over a washer-drier. The smaller painters have lines, like the flags of Scandinavian countries.
There is a visitors' sign-in book, with three signatures. The show, "SERVICE" by Gloria Maximo, sponsored by Desnivel, has been here for five days. So you add a one-line review - "These works fit in so well here! - and this one, scarcely longer.
Out on First Avenue the gentrification and commodification continue, with two separate film shoots each with their own Haddad food / craft trucks.
On St. Mark's Place there is a Japanese mini-mart and maybe, somewhere in here, the drug rehab that's often cited to keep people on probation from being remanded.
Years ago, the author displayed work in something called the Food Stamp Gallery. Now reviewing this show in a laundromat. Some things never change.
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