"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...

"Bangkok Heart of Noir" book now available........

"Bangkok, Heart of Noir"...poetry by John Gartland....paintings by Chris Coles....now available as Ebook/Kindle book....(Master of Noir 1).....

"This unique collaboration brings together two of the leading talents of the burgeoning Bangkok creative scene."

"English poet, John Gartland, has won an enthusiastic following among poetry fans and other Bangkok writers, with eloquent public readings of his poetry around the city in recent years."

"The paintings of American Expressionist painter, Chris Coles, grace the walls of some of the city's premier night spots, as well as those of private collecctors.  His brilliantly coloured works exhaustively explore the darker realities of the Bangkok Night."  

"The two artists forged a strong working relationship first of all through collaborations on "Poetry Universe", John Gartland's Facebook poetry page, and this current Masters of Noir collection, assembled by Lizardville Productions, is a vivd exploration, in their striking poetic and visual imagery, of Bangkok, the dark centre of Asian Noir."

"Bangkok, city of erotic glamour, a massive sex industry, and explosive political instability, is a seductive and dangerous mistress.  Its pleasures are addictive and its streets merciless.  Beggars and streetwalkers stalk a world of designer-label shopping malls cheek by jowl with vicious slums. 

"Criminal mafias and corrupt officials seem interchangable in a kingdom of glittering palaces, semi-feudal hierarchies and military coups.  Free speech is ruthlessly curtailed in a world where Buddhist monks become cynical multi-millionaires, and the drug trade reaches to every corner of this hot, dangerously hot, city."

"And everything, but everything, is for sale." 

"This is the sexy, scary, and irresistable, "Bangkok, Heart of Noir".

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http://goo.gl/lxxgqx

Characters of Nightlife: Harpswell artist Chris Coles paints his picture of Bangkok

Characters of Nightlife

Harpswell artist Chris Coles paints his picture of Bangkok

BY ROSANNA GARGIULO Times Record Staff

Capturing a scene at once exotic and volatile, it’s hard to identify the point at which Harpswell artist Chris Coles’s paintings of the Bangkok nightlife veer from reality to expressionism.

With red, yellow or orange eyes shining out from green, red or blue skin, Coles’s subjects are club owners, sex workers, expatriates, tourists, ladyboys — characters of a nightlife that draws nearly 27 million tourists a year, and approximately 2 million sex workers.

“As an expressionist artist, I’m not really trying to get the surface reality,” said Coles, who considers himself part of a Bangkok Noir movement, “but what’s radiating out from inside.”

Describing his work as “gritty” and “disturbing,” Coles’s extreme use of color and form distortion are informed by the frenetic energy of the scene he says is “fun for the customers, but extremely damaging to the people delivering the services.”

Coles was raised in Maine and graduated from Brunswick High School before earning his undergraduate degree from Brown University. Formerly a film producer in Los Angeles for 25 years, he started traveling around Southeast Asia while working as a studio producer for the 1995 film Cutthroat Island, starring Geena Davis.

“At that time, it was one of the largest budget films ever made,” said Coles. “It was a stupid pirate movie and it bankrupted the studio basically, but we were based in Thailand and I got to see Asia.

“After that I said, ‘You know, the money is good but I can’t spend my whole life making incredibly stupid films,’” he added.

Recently returned from Thailand — just days after the country’s military chief announced a coup d’etat — Coles said he splits his time between his tranquil Harpswell home and Southeast Asia, and the space is what gives him time to rebalance and maintain perspective.

“There’s a social aspect to the work I do as well; I have a very negative view of the clubs and nightlife,” he said. “Whereas a lot of the girls in bars might be quite pretty, they’re ugly in my paintings a lot of the time, but I’ll give them a copy and they get it right away.

“They don’t say ‘Why are you using wacky colors?’ They’ll say, ‘That’s how I feel; that’s exactly how I feel,” said Coles. “They love these paintings, the people who work in these bars.”

Coles’s premiere exhibition was in Los Angeles in 2005. Since then his work has also been displayed in New York, various locations in Thailand and once in Harpswell. He has been interviewed by several of Thailand’s news outlets, culture magazines and Thai TV.

While many of the Bangkok noir subjects appreciate Coles’s work, Thailand’s elite and Coles’s fellow Mainers have had mixed reactions.

“The people who get upset about my paintings in Thailand are the richest Thais — they say it’s terrible for me to present Thailand in that way,” he said. “I tell them, ‘Well, that’s the way it is, if you don’t like it, shut it down.’”

But prostitution is big business in Thailand. Documentation of the industry is scant, but one Australian news agency reported in 2003 that the industry was worth $4.3 billion. The billionaires benefiting from the nightlife aren’t about to allow a sea change, said Coles.

“Right now the biggest, most famous nightclub in Bangkok has three of my paintings, and three or four others have my paintings,” he said, “so the world I paint has become a part of the world I paint.

“In their view, I’m giving them voice, they have sixth grade education,” Coles added. “They don’t write, they hardly read. I’m giving voice to their struggle.”

In Maine, Coles said, the reception varies with the observer.

“The average consumer of Maine art that goes to galleries in Maine — they want scenery. They want sunsets, they want lobster fisherman, something nice to put up in their house,” said Coles. “They don’t want something gritty.”

To give his paintings context, Coles writes vignettes to accompany each of them — and he has spent years, in some cases, observing his subjects.

“The rural incomes in Thailand are about $1,000 a year,” said Coles, “and Thailand has one of the highest teenage birth rates in the world.”

It is common, Coles said, for young women in rural areas to have one or two children before the age of 20, and to be solely financially responsible for their children and for aging parents who are no longer able to work.

“There’s no social security or safety net,” said Coles, “so you may have one daughter supporting five people: Two babies, two parents and herself — the incentive to go to Bangkok, in terms of financial obligations, is huge.”

A factory worker may make $200 a month, said Coles, but a sex worker can earn $2,000 a month. A highend prostitute can make $5,000 a month, more than the average doctor’s salary.

“They have a sixth grade education, most of them, so they have no education or skills,” said Coles. “When they show up they’re shockingly fresh and nice, but there’s a huge casualty rate and gradually they disintegrate.”

Working every night until 3 or 4 a.m., the pervasive drug use, health risks and alcohol consumption endemic to the environment they work in takes its toll, said Coles.

“Gradually it just wears them down — it’s like a machine — it just wears them down,” he said. “But often when they start, you just can’t believe they’re even working there.”

While maybe not the kind of work “someone from Harpswell with a nice home may want to hang on their walls,” said Coles, his paintings have captured the interest of collectors in Asia, North America and Europe, including one of Thailand’s former prime ministers and a member of the royal family.

Coles is also hoping to have his first European exhibition premiere this fall in Amsterdam. He is currently working on a series of paintings of Pattaya, a beach resort visited by millions of Russian, Iranian and Arab tourists, among others.

“They’re very tuned into this kind of painting there, they don’t want something sentimental, warm, nice and soft,” said Coles. “They want something that wakes you up and makes you think.

“Some people get really upset that I do portraits of, they say, ‘That’s disgusting — you made me look like a monster,’ said Coles. “Well, maybe they are. I paint what I see.”

The world he sees is in transition, “moving at the speed of light from a developing to first world country,” Coles said, and the temptations it offers too often lure in those who try to record its existence as it changes before their eyes.

“No one else is really doing this — other artists have tried to do it, but they get caught up in it,” said Coles. “Only a kid from the coast of Maine could get near this stuff without just getting vaporized.”

http://www.timesrecord.com/news/2014-05-23/Front_Page/Characters_of_Nightlife.html

Thai TV Interview with Chris Coles April 2013

 "Sexy Bar" - Chris Coles

For Thai TV....Tara Milutis interviews Chris Coles about why he's painting the Bangkok Night........

Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiTGA0fiSeM
 
Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgugOsIWcZc&list=PL27DFAB0B48A02677
 
Part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTDG-xuD0Hs&list=PL27DFAB0B48A02677

Phnom Penh Noir - Two Expats at Walkabout Bar

"Two Expats at Walkabout Bar Phnom Penh" - Chris Coles

Nothing much to do, just chat, drink beer, play pool and chase Khmer girls....another night in the hot tropical heat....

Phnom Penh Noir - Walkabout Bar

"Phnom Penh Noir - Walkabout Bar" - Chris Coles

On Street 51, aka Avenue Pasteur, Walkabout Bar is Expat Central....food served 24/7....still going at 4AM every night of the year...kind of dark....the Khmer girls waiting and waiting, sometimes checking their mobile phones, chatting or playing pool, sometimes giving up and wandering off to some other spot where there might be more game.....

Young Australian Sex Tourist in the Bangkok Night

"Young Australian Sex Tourist in the Bangkok Night" - Chris Coles

His girlfriend in Australia thinks he's one of the "good guys" and he tells her what she wants to hear....but in the Bangkok Night, he does as he pleases, taking whatever girl he wants in crude and shoddy short-time hotels that costs 300 baht for 2 hours......

AsiaLife: Bangkok Artist Gets Night Vision in Phnom Penh

 "Blue Ladyboy" - Chris Coles

Night Vision, a show presenting about 30 of Bangkok-based artist Chris Coles expressionist-style paintings from the Bangkok Night, will open at Meta House in Phnom Penh on Feb. 22.

Coles will also be giving an illustrated talk at the Opening titled, “German Expressionism and the Noir Vision in Southeast Asia”, discussing his paintings in the context of the Noir movement taking place among various writers, artists, musicians and filmmakers who are working in Southeast Asia.

The Phnom Penh-based music group KROM, featuring vocalists Sophea Chamroeun and Sopheak Chamroeun, accompanied by composer/musician, Christopher Minko, will be performing at the Opening. Chris Coles paintings will be on exhibition at Meta House through mid-March.

The paintings presented will include scenes from the Bangkok Night as well as portraits of people in the Bangkok Night, conveying Chris’ noir but poignant vision of an off-kilter and out-of-sorts world of night-workers and night-consumers interacting on the vast and alienated stage of the Bangkok Night, full of bright lights and colorful neon, illusion and desire.

Meta House
37 Sothearos Blvd.
Phnom Penh

Photos from FCCT Show of "Paintings from the Bangkok Night"

Philip Cornwel-Smith and Artist discuss "Soi Cowboy"
(photo by Richard Barrow)

King of Ratchada Chuwit with "Ratchada Poseidon" in background

FCCT Bar with "Sexy Bar" and "Thaniya Plaza" in background

FCCT crowd

FCCT Guy with "Soi Cowboy" neon in background

"Girl from the Bangkok Night" with Ido Berger

"Sexy Bar"  (photo by Aroon Vater)

Quiet conversation at FCCT show
(photo by Aroon Vater)

FCCT with "Sexy Bar" and "Thaniya Plaza" in background

"Sexy Bar" and "Thaiya Plaza"

FCCT show

Montage of FCCT Show by Richard Barrow

View from FCCT Speakers table

View from speakers table

FCCT bar

"Sexy Bar" and "Thaniya Plaza" in background

"Soi Cowboy" in background

"Old Hand Bangkok Journalist" and "Tilac Agogo"

"Sexy Bar" and "Thaniya Plaza"

"Midnite Bar" and "Bangkok Boys Town"

"Midnite Bar" and "Bangkok Boys Town"

"Ratchada Poseidon"

FCCT bar

"Sexy Bar" and "Thaniya Plaza"

"Soi Cowboy"

"Sexy Bar" and "Thaniya Plaza"

"Midnite Bar" and "Bangkok Boys Town"

Journalists at FCCT bar

FCCT speakers table before Opening

FCCT before Opening

FCCT speakers table

About to speak on German Expressionism and the Bangkok Night

"Navigating the Bangkok Noir"

Bangkok's BIG CHILLI magazine on FCCT Show

BK Magazine Blurb on FCCT Show

Soi Cowboy

"Soi Cowboy" - Chris Coles (100 x 80cm acrylic on canvas)

Saturday night on Soi Cowboy, a neon lit block of gogo bars and music places, thousands of girls, mostly from Isan, tens of thousands of Expats, many of them long-term residents living and working in Bangkok. Food carts, stray dogs, beggars, outside terraces to sit, drink beer and watch the world of the Bangkok Night flow by.......

From a series of 100cm x 80cm acrylic on canvas paintings I am doing for an upcoming show in Bangkok this coming October.......

BIG CHILLI BKK Interview with Chris Coles

December 2011 BIG CHILLI magazine interview with Chris Coles about his "Portraits from the Bangkok Night" show at Bed Supperclub (Dec 8th, 2011 thru Jan 31, 2012)............

........to enlarge the BIG CHILLI piece above, left click on it...........to enlarge further, left click again..........