Opening Wednesday, January 14, 6–9pm
Post Times is pleased to present Intermodal 53, a solo exhibition by Elberto “SLUTO” Muller.
Intermodal 53 takes its title from the 53-foot shipping container that serves as the standard unit for domestic intermodal freight transport across North America. Designed to move seamlessly between trucks, trains, and ships without unloading cargo, the intermodal container is a symbol of circulation, mobility, and infrastructure. For the artist, it is also deeply personal: throughout years of train hopping across the United States, intermodal containers functioned both as a means of transportation and as a primary surface for his graffiti and mosaic work.
The title also operates as a metaphor for his fluid artistic practice, which moves freely between spray paint, mosaic tile, and the written word. Drawing from the visual culture and overlooked spaces of contemporary America, the works navigate themes of transience, loneliness, and survival, while maintaining a tone characterized by playful mischief and at times grim cynicism.
Shown here for the first time is a new body of work showcasing the artist’s own photography and text embedded directly into mosaic tile. These works reflect on love and loss, friendship, and travel, expanding his practice into a more overtly autobiographical and narrative register. On the occasion of the exhibition, the artist has also produced a new zine and mixtape.
Among the works on view, One Inch of Love is an Inch of Ashes (2023) presents a large illuminated Chinese take-out menu rendered in the artist’s signature mosaic style. Beneath the images of each dish, Chinese characters collectively form an untitled poem written by the Tang dynasty poet, Li Shangyin. The work was previously on loan at the restaurant Mission Chinese in New York.
This exhibition presents the artist's most sculpturally complex mosaic works to date. Mr. Brightside (2024) portrays a figure smoking heroin, a composite of friends lost to the opoid crisis. Reflecting on addiction, loss, and recovery, the work addresses the opioid crisis in America while memorializing friends lost to accidental overdoses. Also included is Boneca Ambalabu (2025), a mosaic depiction of an “Italian brainrot” character—a surreal composite figure drawn from the viral internet subculture that emerged in early 2025. Characterized by absurdist, AI-generated creatures with pseudo-Italian names, the phenomenon is an organically developed, open-source visual language that circulates freely online.
Elberto “SLUTO” Muller (born) has presented the solo exhibition Vacant Hand at Entrance, New York, and has been included in recent group exhibitions Carnival (Curated by Joe Coleman) at Jeffrey Deitch, New York, and Love Poems (Curated by Chris Martin) at Anton Kern, New York, among others. As a writer, he has published numerous zines and books, including Graffiti on Low or No Dollars: An Alternative Guide to Aesthetics and Grifting Throughout the United States and Canada. His graffiti and mosaic wall reliefs are currently on view at numerous sites in New York and across the United States.