"Paint the Neon Night: Seeing in the Dark" - Bangkok Eyes Piece on Chris Coles Recent Bangkok Show and Paintings........

Ten years ago this month, Midnight Hour opened with "Chris Coles' Noir Persepective", a piece on up-and-coming expressionist painter Coles.  Our article was motivated by the sudden and growing interest in Coles' paintings immediately following his successful showing at Liam's Gallery in Pattaya. Last month we revisited this ongoing success story - Chris Coles, his exhibits and his paintings.

One corner of Chris Coles' showing at Brainwake Cafe Gallery in January

By coincidence, while we were in the drafting stages of an 'update' story on Chris Coles, we received an invitation from him to attend his 'opening' at the Brainwake Cafe Gallery at the back of Soi 33 Sukhumvit.  Made to order - we would definitely be in attendance.

Candid shot of Chris Coles at the Brainwake showing.

The turnout for Chris Coles' Brainwake exhibition was somewhat greater than anticipated; a number of reporters representing large and small publications, 'local' expat writers and a 'poet' or two, in addition to several members of the expat population that had purchasead a 'Chris Coles' in the past. Last, but not least, were the expats and local customers on the Brainwake who were drawn to the showing like moths-to-the-flame by their own curiosity.

A 'Chris Coles" painting we at Bangkok Eyes are quite fond of. In fact, we were so 'fond-of' it, we purchased it and placed it front and center in our News Room. We never knew the name this painting. So we call it 'Predator'.

Over the last ten years, the demand for Chris Coles' paintings has been on the increase.  A number  of local restaurants and other Nitespots have a 'Chris Coles' hanging somewhere in a prominent position (Check Inn 99 and Baccara Bar Soi Cowboy, for example).  Many in Thailand's expat community also have a Coles' painting up at home, and will note conversationally, "Oh, yes, I already have a 'Chris Coles'.

Another photo from the Coles' exhibition at Brainwake.

While Chris pursues other themes from time to time, it is his Nightscene Epxressionist canvases which capture both the viewer's imagination and the reality on the ground.  Often a single Chris Cole' canvas will capture the neon/black-light/chrome-pole frosting on the cake - and the darker grunge of the cake itself. Chris Coles...."the painter who sees in the dark". Chris' works are original, unique and have carved a permanent niche in Bangkok's Nightlife Scene.

The Check Inn 99 has three 'Chris Coles' paintings hanging within. This one, 'Crazy Hour', partially obscured by a customer, is located at the end of the bar.

Not that Chris Coles' paintings have taken off like Bligh Dolls or Luk Thep Dolls or Krispy Kreme donuts - Chris will just have to wait for the 'intangible', that unknowable element that causes something to 'go viral'.  Those of us who know Chris have told him in jest that he would have to fake his own demise before his paintings would be sought by the rich-and-famous, the renowned galleries, the famous auction houses.....

A rendition of a young lady many imagine they once knew.....

An out-take from the Bangkok Post heralding the Chris Coles outing at Brainwake...

From BangkokEyes:"Through the Neon & Black-Light Looking-Glass with Chris Coles"

Bangkok's nightworld expands undiminishingly, and has done so in three dimensions for several decades - there is no end in sight. It has become a fathomless, garish world, the dynamics of which are no longer capable of being comprehended by a single person, or organization or government entity. More complex than any single living organism, the Bangkok Night Scene has, like the fictional SkyNet in the Terminator series, begun to function independently, both inside, and outside the boundaries of society's manmade laws, ordinances and norms. Bangkok's Nightworld complexities can be seen, in parts, by anyone venturing into the streets after dark, however, a holistic comprehension shall remain beyond the pale. The Night Scene 'whole' is now made up of too many 'parts' - many of these parts coming into contact with the other parts, and many not. The immensity and complexity of Bangkok's Nightworld is such that no two individuals perceive the Bangkok Nightlife Scene in the same way. It is more likely than not that individuals living in, or coming to Bangkok will not be exposed to all, or even some, of the same things - and will almost certainly carry away with them entirely different views of Bangkok's Night Scene - it has become that big - that multi-faceted. While self-annointed "Old-Bangkok-Hands" will tend to be skeptical of this view, they are in fact, the first to be lulled into a simplistic view of 'The Scene'. To illustrate : - the Khao Sarn Road crowd, with their Lonely Planets in hand, often do not see any other 'Bangkok Nightlife'. There are those who prefer the laid-back bar beer scene, with a regimen of darts and pool, and there are those who are exclusively "pub people". The drug dealers and pushers live in their own stratum of the Nightscene, as do the street hookers, who rarely or never mix with other Nightlife strata. The gays see only their gay world within the Nightlife Scene, never needing to leave Soi Twilight, Soi Katoey and the like. The mainstream "Bangkok Bar Scene" boys see their own "Bangkok", as do Bangkok's police, as do the night street vendors and sidewalk barkeeps. Then there are the "party" crowds who, by design, keep to themselves and their soft drugs and orgies - their 'Bangkok Nights' being separate and apart from the others. There are also those who prefer the specialty massage parlors over the bars, and spend virtually all their (night) time at these venues. And there are others who only see, physically, a small part of Bangkok's Nightlife; one soi, or perhaps two or three sois in a given neighborhood (such as Washington Square, or Rachada, or RCA, or Suthisarn, or Jatujak). And there are those from Germany who see and know one 'Nighttime Bangkok', while those from Nigeria see and know another -almost exclusively. While it serves no purpose to ennumerate each and every aspect of Bangkok's Night Scene, it should also be noted that there are some individuals who 'partake' of more than one of the above. However it becomes abundantly apparent that it is physically impossible to partake of the entire "Scene" in all its forms and in all it's localities. And while there is no finite, all encompassing definition of this potentially dangerous, high-energy morass of boozers, soft and hard drug addicts and traffickers, whoremongers and whores, gays and straights, pedophiles and child prostitutes, scammers and hustlers and pickpockets, drug-you-and-rob-you katoeys, liars, human traffickers, bent and honest cops, dishonest and honest taxi drivers (and etc), Bangkok's Nightlife denizens do exist, do adapt, and do develop an overall sense of how to, and how not to, navigate through much of our midnight jungle. It is, rather, this navigational sense -this ability to remain functional in a darker world where cause-and-effect is often not obvious- that defines the "Bangkok noir". One such denizen of Bangkok's 'electric nights' is an expatriate American artist by the name of Chris Coles, whose paintings you are now viewing. His total immersion in Bangkok's Nightlife Scene preceded his current series of 'noir' paintings - his absorbtion of that around him was, and is, complete to the extent that he "sees" each of his subjects as though illuminated in neon and black-light. Originally, these paintings were thought to be "weird", however, because his unique surrealism keeps this one hook in reality (abundantly apparent to Bangkok's like-minded denizens), the interest in this one-of-a-kind artist and his works continues to grow. A recent showing of his works at Liam's Gallery in Pattaya was more than modestly successful - one local expat now owns two of Coles' works, and others are considering it prudent to add one to their personal collections. But regardless of who owns, or doesn't own whatever, Chris Coles' Nightscene works are the real deal - a part and parcel of Bangkok's neon circus.