Emmanuelle Ratchada - Enter the Night...................

"Emmanuelle Ratchada - Enter the Night" - Chris Coles

Field of Flowers..............

"Field of Flowers" - Chris Coles

Closing Time Nana Plaza..............

"Closing Time Nana Plaza" - Chris Coles

Hi-So Thai Guy at Pegasus Club in the Bangkok Night...........

"Hi-So Thai Guy at Pegasus Club in the Bangkok Night" - Chris Coles

Five Flowers...........

"Five Flowers" - Chris Coles

Sunflowers...........

"Sunflowers" - Chris Coles

Bangkok Noir Artist Peter Klashorst......................

"Bangkok Noir Artist Peter Klashorst" - Chris Coles

Bangkok Noir Author/Journalist/Photographer Nick Nostitz as a Young Man in the Bangkok Night......

"Bangkok Noir Author/Journalist/Photographer Nick Nostitz as a Young Man in the Bangkok Night" - Chris Coles

Flowers, One Butterfly and the Bangkok Night Show Opening in Bangkok 7PM Thursday January 14th........

"Blue Butterfly in the Bangkok Night" - Chris Coles

"Flowers, One Butterfly and the Bangkok Night" - Chris Coles

Many of my Expressionist-style noir paintings are drawn from the context of the Bangkok Night, a vast, multi-layered entertainment spectacle which involves all manner of people from SE Asia, Asia and the entire world and which takes place each and every night across the many layers and districts of the modern megapolis known as Bangkok.  

In this show, "Flowers, One Butterfly and the Bangkok Night", I am presenting some of my flower paintings, one painting of a Butterfly and a selection of paintings of people and places from the Bangkok Night. Which at first might seem a little odd but actually there is a certain idea behind it.

In all of my paintings, I try to convey a sense and feeling of the situation, person and/or visual object itself as well as a more generalized metaphorical vision. 

While my Bangkok Night paintings are drawn from and inspired by the people, visuals and ambiance of the actual Bangkok Night, they also present a metaphorical vision of a noir globalized modern world where people of every background and status mix and mingle in all sorts of ways, alienated, predatory and calculating, clinging to good intentions as well as bad,  with intimacy and feelings both real and imagined. With all sorts of consequences abd outcomes both intended and unintended.

But in the metaphorical more generalized sense, Bangkok's many thousands of Night Workers can also be seen as colorful, sometimes beautiful, often sweetly fragrant flowers which beckon to the many colorful butterflies and hungry bees floating by to pause, say hello and visit.

Tragically, the lifespan of these thousands of flowers is often very short, an all too rapid but inevitable transition between birth, blooming, replication, decay and death.

Similar to the butterflies and bees who are attracted by the flowers' colors, patterns and scent, who are hungry for the flowers' pollen, who are in a rush themselves to mate and replicate before their own brief moment of life in this world comes to an end.

And similar to the Bangkok Night's tens of thousands of sex workers and their hundreds of thousands of customers.

Opening: 7PM, Thursday, January 14th

Brainwake Cafe & Gallery

27/1 Sukhumvit Soi 33
(left at bottom of Sukhumvit Soi 33 near Peppina's)

Tel: 02-005-0026

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List of Paintings:

"Blue Butterfly in the Bangkok Night"

"Pink Purple Blue Flowers on Yellow"

"Four Purple Flowers"

"Sunflowers"

"Field of Flowers"

"Five Flowers"

"Mountain Flowers"

"Orange Flower"

"Turquoise Ladyboy in the Bangkok Night"

"HiSo Thai Guy at Pegasus Club"

"Ladyboy at Levels Club Soi 11"

"Boys Town"

"Thaniya Plaza Neon"

"Hello Girls at The Iron Club"

"Renoir Club Soi 33"

"Emmanuelle Ratchada"

"Beer Bar Asoke"

"Hollywood Bar Nana"

"Party Time Voodoo Bar"

"Rainbow Two Bar"

"Closing Time Nana Plaza"

"Midnight Patpong"

"Expat Marriage"

Thai Ladyboy at Levels Club Soi 11 Bangkok Night........

"Thai Ladyboy at Levels Club Soi 11 Bangkok Night" - Chris Coles

Farang Ladyboy Rocking Out Lucifer DIsko Walking Street Pattaya................

"Farang Ladyboy Rocking Out Lucifer DIsko Walking Street Pattaya" - Chris Coles

Massage Lady Waiting for Customer in the Bangkok Night..........

"Massage Lady Waiting for Customer in the Bangkok Night" - Chris Coles

Girl at Baccara Bar in the Bangkok Night...................

"Girl at Baccara Bar in the Bangkok Night" - Chris Coles

Thai Rentboy Silom/Surawong Bangkok Night...............

"Thai Rentboy Silom/Surwong Bangkok Night" - Chris Coles

Ladyboy Prostitute 2nd Floor Nana Plaza Bangkok Night............

"Ladyboy Prostitute 2nd Floor Nana Plaza Bangkok Night" - Chris Coles

Street 51 Girl in the Phnom Penh Night............

"Street 51 Girl Phnom Penh Night" - Chris Coles

Bangkok Noir Author Tim Hallinan Capsule Review of "Bangkok, Heart of Noir"................

The poet John Gartland lives in Bangkok, possibly the brightest and hottest of all noir cities, and he knows a broad spectrum of the people who live there.  These poems capture and present the Bangkok I know (and don't always love) in perfect miniatures, painted with a very fine brush.  Terrific work.

Not to be overlooked are the amazing paintings by Chris Coles, whose neon-influenced brush brings the subjects of Gartland's poems to glowing, somewhat uneasy life.  This is a perfect match of talents.  Coles, like Gartland, has been shaped by one of the world's greatest and most bizarre cities, and both of them have used their talent to respond to, annd document, this unique urban environment.

Blue Butterfly in the Bangkok Night............

"Blue Butterfly in the Bangkok Night" - Chris Coles

Thai Smile..............(now installed at Baccara Bar on Soi Cowboy for those intersted in seeing it in person)........

"Thai Smile" - Chris Coles