Chris Coles | Brown University (original) (raw)
Books by Chris Coles
Noir Portraits from the Bangkok Night I, 2022
The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Specta... more The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Spectacle that takes place each and every night in the city of Bangkok, sprawling across miles and miles of this huge modern Metropolis, and catering to millions of people of every background, ethnicity and income level from all over Thailand, Asia and the World.
Among the many things that I have always found interesting while spending time in the Bangkok Night is the vast variety of people and faces that one encounters just wandering about through any random selection of night venues drawn from the tens of thousands of Bangkok cafes, restaurants, music clubs, executive clubs, bars, KTV’s, Hostess bars, discos, pool halls, After Hours clubs and street markets.
During a night out in Bangkok, one can cross paths and interact with people from many countries, speaking many languages, of every ethnicity, age, skintone, professional level, attitude, religion, philosophy, point of view and destiny.
In addition to the tasty food, multiple overlapping music tracks, vibrant colors and infinite variety of faces....the relaxed and friendly ambiance...the neon intensity....the density of hundreds of thousands of people moving about in close quarters, lit up, excited and eager, the fragrant smoke from ten thousands of street stalls wafting through the warm tropical air.
But in addition to being an actual place with actual people, the Bangkok Night is also, in my view, an Idea, a kind of Metaphor for the World in general and the State of Humanity in our Present Era. The portraits in this book reflect this point of view and are a mixture of actual people I have encountered wandering around in the Bangkok Night as well as actual people I have imagined wandering around in the Bangkok Night and entirely imaginary people who I imagine would be at home in the Bangkok Night.
Noir Portraits from the Bangkok Night II, 2022
The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Specta... more The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Spectacle that takes place each and every night in the city of Bangkok, sprawling across miles and miles of this huge modern Metropolis, and catering to millions of people of every background, ethnicity and income level from all over Thailand, Asia and the World.
Among the many things that I have always found interesting while spending time in the Bangkok Night is the vast variety of people and faces that one encounters just wandering about through any random selection of night venues drawn from the tens of thousands of Bangkok cafes, restaurants, music clubs, executive clubs, bars, KTV’s, Hostess bars, discos, pool halls, After Hours clubs and street markets.
During a night out in Bangkok, one can cross paths and interact with people from many countries, speaking many languages, of every ethnicity, age, skintone, professional level, attitude, religion, philosophy, point of view and destiny.
In addition to the tasty food, multiple overlapping music tracks, vibrant colors and infinite variety of faces....the relaxed and friendly ambiance...the neon intensity....the density of hundreds of thousands of people moving about in close quarters, lit up, excited and eager, the fragrant smoke from ten thousands of street stalls wafting through the warm tropical air.
But in addition to being an actual place with actual people, the Bangkok Night is also, in my view, an Idea, a kind of Metaphor for the World in general and the State of Humanity in our Present Era. The portraits in this book reflect this point of view and are a mixture of actual people I have encountered wandering around in the Bangkok Night as well as actual people I have imagined wandering around in the Bangkok Night and entirely imaginary people who I imagine would be at home in the Bangkok Night.
Noir Portraits from the Bangkok Night III, 2022
The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Specta... more The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Spectacle that takes place each and every night in the city of Bangkok, sprawling across miles and miles of this huge modern Metropolis, and catering to millions of people of every background, ethnicity and income level from all over Thailand, Asia and the World.
Among the many things that I have always found interesting while spending time in the Bangkok Night is the vast variety of people and faces that one encounters just wandering about through any random selection of night venues drawn from the tens of thousands of Bangkok cafes, restaurants, music clubs, executive clubs, bars, KTV’s, Hostess bars, discos, pool halls, After Hours clubs and street markets.
During a night out in Bangkok, one can cross paths and interact with people from many countries, speaking many languages, of every ethnicity, age, skintone, professional level, attitude, religion, philosophy, point of view and destiny.
In addition to the tasty food, multiple overlapping music tracks, vibrant colors and infinite variety of faces....the relaxed and friendly ambiance...the neon intensity....the density of hundreds of thousands of people moving about in close quarters, lit up, excited and eager, the fragrant smoke from ten thousands of street stalls wafting through the warm tropical air.
But in addition to being an actual place with actual people, the Bangkok Night is also, in my view, an Idea, a kind of Metaphor for the World in general and the State of Humanity in our Present Era. The portraits in this book reflect this point of view and are a mixture of actual people I have encountered wandering around in the Bangkok Night as well as actual people I have imagined wandering around in the Bangkok Night and entirely imaginary people who I imagine would be at home in the Bangkok Night.
Noir Portraits from the Bangkok Night IV, 2022
The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Specta... more The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Spectacle that takes place each and every night in the city of Bangkok, sprawling across miles and miles of this huge modern Metropolis, and catering to millions of people of every background, ethnicity and income level from all over Thailand, Asia and the World.
Among the many things that I have always found interesting while spending time in the Bangkok Night is the vast variety of people and faces that one encounters just wandering about through any random selection of night venues drawn from the tens of thousands of Bangkok cafes, restaurants, music clubs, executive clubs, bars, KTV’s, Hostess bars, discos, pool halls, After Hours clubs and street markets.
During a night out in Bangkok, one can cross paths and interact with people from many countries, speaking many languages, of every ethnicity, age, skintone, professional level, attitude, religion, philosophy, point of view and destiny.
In addition to the tasty food, multiple overlapping music tracks, vibrant colors and infinite variety of faces....the relaxed and friendly ambiance...the neon intensity....the density of hundreds of thousands of people moving about in close quarters, lit up, excited and eager, the fragrant smoke from ten thousands of street stalls wafting through the warm tropical air.
But in addition to being an actual place with actual people, the Bangkok Night is also, in my view, an Idea, a kind of Metaphor for the World in general and the State of Humanity in our Present Era. The portraits in this book reflect this point of view and are a mixture of actual people I have encountered wandering around in the Bangkok Night as well as actual people I have imagined wandering around in the Bangkok Night and entirely imaginary people who I imagine would be at home in the Bangkok Night.
Noir Portraits from the Bangkok Night V, 2022
The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Specta... more The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Spectacle that takes place each and every night in the city of Bangkok, sprawling across miles and miles of this huge modern Metropolis, and catering to millions of people of every background, ethnicity and income level from all over Thailand, Asia and the World.
Among the many things that I have always found interesting while spending time in the Bangkok Night is the vast variety of people and faces that one encounters just wandering about through any random selection of night venues drawn from the tens of thousands of Bangkok cafes, restaurants, music clubs, executive clubs, bars, KTV’s, Hostess bars, discos, pool halls, After Hours clubs and street markets.
During a night out in Bangkok, one can cross paths and interact with people from many countries, speaking many languages, of every ethnicity, age, skintone, professional level, attitude, religion, philosophy, point of view and destiny.
In addition to the tasty food, multiple overlapping music tracks, vibrant colors and infinite variety of faces....the relaxed and friendly ambiance...the neon intensity....the density of hundreds of thousands of people moving about in close quarters, lit up, excited and eager, the fragrant smoke from ten thousands of street stalls wafting through the warm tropical air.
But in addition to being an actual place with actual people, the Bangkok Night is also, in my view, an Idea, a kind of Metaphor for the World in general and the State of Humanity in our Present Era. The portraits in this book reflect this point of view and are a mixture of actual people I have encountered wandering around in the Bangkok Night as well as actual people I have imagined wandering around in the Bangkok Night and entirely imaginary people who I imagine would be at home in the Bangkok Night.
Noir Portraits from the Bangkok Night VI, 2022
The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Specta... more The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Spectacle that takes place each and every night in the city of Bangkok, sprawling across miles and miles of this huge modern Metropolis, and catering to millions of people of every background, ethnicity and income level from all over Thailand, Asia and the World.
Among the many things that I have always found interesting while spending time in the Bangkok Night is the vast variety of people and faces that one encounters just wandering about through any random selection of night venues drawn from the tens of thousands of Bangkok cafes, restaurants, music clubs, executive clubs, bars, KTV’s, Hostess bars, discos, pool halls, After Hours clubs and street markets.
During a night out in Bangkok, one can cross paths and interact with people from many countries, speaking many languages, of every ethnicity, age, skintone, professional level, attitude, religion, philosophy, point of view and destiny.
In addition to the tasty food, multiple overlapping music tracks, vibrant colors and infinite variety of faces....the relaxed and friendly ambiance...the neon intensity....the density of hundreds of thousands of people moving about in close quarters, lit up, excited and eager, the fragrant smoke from ten thousands of street stalls wafting through the warm tropical air.
But in addition to being an actual place with actual people, the Bangkok Night is also, in my view, an Idea, a kind of Metaphor for the World in general and the State of Humanity in our Present Era. The portraits in this book reflect this point of view and are a mixture of actual people I have encountered wandering around in the Bangkok Night as well as actual people I have imagined wandering around in the Bangkok Night and entirely imaginary people who I imagine would be at home in the Bangkok Night.
Early Paintings from the Bangkok Night, 2021
This book contains some of my earliest paintings from the Bangkok Night. From around 2004 when I ... more This book contains some of my earliest paintings from the Bangkok Night. From around 2004 when I stopped doing graphite portraits of Bangkok faces and started following in the footsteps of the great German Expressionist Emil Nolde who used wild colors and distorted images to capture the essence of the Berlin Night circa 1920’s.
While my later paintings from the Bangkok Night feature larger more complicated scenes and a more complex use of color, some of them also becoming much larger acrylic on canvas images, these early watercolors have a lovely freshness, clarity and simplicity.
Night Spectacle, 2021
Down deep inside every human’s DNA, there is a primordial need for Night Spectacle. It is part o... more Down deep inside every human’s DNA, there is a primordial need for Night Spectacle. It is part of who we are. The paintings in this book capture moments in the largest Night Spectacle humankind has ever constructed, The Bangkok Night. In these Expressionist-Style paintings, I try to convey not only the illusion of excitement and desire permeating The Bangkok Night, but also the poignancy, the ugliness, the momentary glimpses of wonder and beauty, as well as the enormous loss of human potentials, damaged lives and tragedy.
Singapore Art Books, 2019
Walking Street Pattaya is the epicenter of what is probably the largest commercial sex zone on th... more Walking Street Pattaya is the epicenter of what is probably the largest commercial sex zone on the face of the Earth and in the history of the world. Until the late 1960’s, Pattaya, about 70 miles southeast of Bangkok, was a sleepy fishing village. Then the Vietnam War brought tens of thousands of young male American military personnel to a dozen or so bases in Thailand, including a large air base near Pattaya called U-Tapao. Always on the lookout for R&R entertainment, young American soldiers, airmen and sailors started hanging out at a few small beach bars in tiny Pattaya. Thais, who are very enterprenural and quick off the mark, immediately understood that more bars, clubs and girls for more young American soldiers, airmen and sailors meant more money. And so began Pattaya as a center for nightlife. By the end of the Vietnam War, there were several hundred bars, clubs and “entertainment” venues in Pattaya, mainly along Beach Road but also extending into a pedestrian-only area called Walking Street. After the war ended and the American soldiers, airmen and sailors disappeared, the era of Jumbo Jets and cheap air travel arrived. European, Australian and American men began arriving in Pattaya by the hundreds of thousands. More bars, clubs, “entertainment” venues and more bargirls, ladyboys and even rentboys. And more money, a lot more money. Then the internet provided quick information and communication, ATM’s provided endless cash, mobile phones became easy contact points and Viagra allowed for infinite desire. More hundreds of bars, clubs, “entertainment venues”, hotels large and small. Then on top of the first wave of Europeans, Australians and Americans, hundreds of thousands of Japanese, Koreans, Taiwanese, Singaporeans. Then millions of Russians, followed by millions of Chinese, millions of Arabs, Iranians and finally, millions of South Asian males from India. Until Pattaya became the huge nightlife spectacle it is today with tens of thousands of bars, clubs and “entertainment” venues, over ten million visitors per year and hundreds of thousands of sex workers to service them all. Mainly from Isan/NE Thailand but also from Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. On a Friday night, there might be over a hundred thousand tourists, mainly male, just on Walking Street. From every country in Asia and every country on Earth. Neon density, high velocity, powerful audio systems playing dozens of overlapping music tracks. Cheap hotels, great food, tropical air, the beach, the Gulf of Thailand. And in every direction slim, cute, smiling girls, hungry ladyboys and rentboys.
Singapore Art Books, 2019
Writings, Reviews & Interviews with Chris Coles about his Expressionist-Style paintings from the ... more Writings, Reviews & Interviews with Chris Coles about his Expressionist-Style paintings from the Bangkok Night....
Singapore Art Books, 2019
For many people around the world, when they think of Thailand, they think of a faraway place that... more For many people around the world, when they think of Thailand, they think of a faraway place that is “Oriental”, exotic, alluring, filled with golden temples, unspoiled tropical beaches. Someplace exciting, populated with sensual brown-skinned smiling females. All the escapist images that are constantly being fed into the world’s information stream, many of them with the help of TAT, Tourist Authority Thailand, one of the world’s most successful tourism marketing entities, are there to help generate the 40 million or so tourists a year who contribute billions of dollars a year to Thailand’s GDP.
Alas, the actual everyday Thailand is far from exotic, not “Oriental” or alluring and definitely not exciting. Many of the beaches are hardly “unspoiled” and a large number of the females are working in Japanese-owned factories, huge construction sites, in the agricultural sector or cleaning toilets in hotel rooms....neither sensual nor smiling.
The Thailand reality, like most everyday realities, is basically mundane. Thailand is a mid-level developing country inhabited by about 65 million relatively low-income people and saturated with un-zoned, un-checked urban/suburban structures sprawling in every direction, especially along Thailand’s messy highways.
This book presents the everyday reality version of modern Thailand rather than the escapist tourism version that’s been so successfully promoted by TAT and the hundreds of escapist fantasy photo books that line the shelves of Kinokuniya and other Thai bookstores.
Singapore Art Books, 2019
One night when I came across an elderly German guy by the name of Kris Kolde hanging out in a bee... more One night when I came across an elderly German guy by the name of Kris Kolde hanging out in a beer bar on Soi Nana, an epicenter for sleazy Bangkok nightlife catering to Westerners, Arabs and Japanese, and he showed me some of his little watercolor paintings, I recognized him immediately to be a Reincarnation of the long dead German Expressionist Artist/Genius Emil Nolde who used extreme color and distortion to depict the essence of Berlin’s degenerate nitelife back in the 1920’s. Kris and I became friends, due to my interest and admiration for his paintings and also the odd similarity in our names. Alas, a few months later, he was run over late one night trying to cross Sukhumvit Road and died almost instantly. Among his papers was a note asking me to look after his paintings which I took to be a great honor. Thus this book......
Singapore Art Books, 2019
When I first did some flower paintings it was mainly for my mother back on the coast of Maine, so... more When I first did some flower paintings it was mainly for my mother back on the coast of Maine, so she could hang some of my paintings in her house which were not paintings from the Bangkok Night. But over time, I learned that the German Expressionists, especially my Expressionist hero Emil Nolde, also did flower paintings...in the Expressionist style. Distorted, non-realistic, exaggerated colors, a little bit weird. And in the Bangkok Night, the girls in the bars are sometimes referred to as “flowers” and the men who are chasing them are sometimes referred to as “butterflies”. By necessity, flowers are colorful and heavily scented. In order to better attract the bees, insects and butterflies they depend on for pollination and reproduction. Butterflies are also often very colorful and their color patterns are an important element in butterfly male-female attraction and stimulating the urge to reproduce. Both flowers and butterflies have relatively short lifespans so the urgency of attraction, pollination and reproduction is at the forefront of their daily existence. Humans put a high value on flowers, despite their transient nature, using them around births, marriages, deaths, Valentine’s Day and Spring Fertility holidays like Easter. Somehow, flowers are important and they also make great paintings!
Singapore Art Books, 2019
December thru February 2011, one of Bangkok’s trendiest upscale nightclubs, Bed Supperclub, was t... more December thru February 2011, one of Bangkok’s trendiest upscale nightclubs, Bed Supperclub, was the setting for my “Portraits from the Bangkok Night” show.An average of about 500 people a night for 3 months, about 50,000 people in all, viewed the show. Unlike a traditional art gallery which gets a crowd on the Opening Night and then only a few people in the days after that.Bed Supperclub’s stylish nightclub-style lighting which included a little bit of Black Light gave the portraits a lovely florescent glow, perfect for creating the ambiance of the Bangkok Night.It was great to see my paintings being enjoyed “in” the Bangkok Night, as part of the Bangkok Night, not just as paintings “of” the Bangkok Night....
Singapore Art Books, 2019
In this series of paintings from the Phnom Penh Night, I am following in the footsteps of the gre... more In this series of paintings from the Phnom Penh Night, I am following in the footsteps of the great German Expressionists, using distortion and extreme colors to dive below surface “Realism” into a deeper, darker more hidden part of the human experience known as the Phnom Penh Night, a setting filled with tragedy and fear but also a certain poignancy and sometimes a ferocious beauty. The Opening Night at Meta House Gallery in Phnom Penh featured a wonderful live concert performance from Phnom Penh’s KROM Band, starring lead singer/composer Sophea Chamroeun, composer/steel guitarist/vocalist Christopher Minko, Side Guitar and Instrumentalist Jimi Baeck and keyboard artist Mao Sokleap. Bangkok Author Christopher G. Moore also gave a short talk on the SE Asia Noir Movement of writers, poets, musicians, artists and filmmakers who make use of SE Asia’s seemingly infinite abundance of noir material as the setting, inspiration and backdrop for their creative vison and work. Appreciation and thanks to Nico Mesterharm, the Cultural Impraesario behind Meta House and all it’s myriad of programs and cultural events.
Singapore Art Books, 2019
“Chris Coles paintings and artwork is very striking I guess I would say. They remind me of Zappa ... more “Chris Coles paintings and artwork is very striking I guess I would say. They remind me of Zappa lyrics...’gross and perverted, obsessed and deranged’. His colors are so primitive and their throbbing clash on your eyes and senses ooze a sense of darkness, of evil even. Yet, they are almost playful at times and amusing as well. His work reminds me of what I expect to see when I am fairly obliterated and moving aside the thick velvet curtain of the umpteenth ‘next’ gogo bar, the one I know I should not go in, but enter I do. You know, the bar with the katoey mamasan with the garish make-up that glows under the black lights that scares the bejesus out of you as his/her face looms in your drunken blurry field of vision. Coles captures the extra-dimensional feel of the Thailand nightlife. His work occupies another zone of existence. It’s so ugly at times it is intriguing in a perverse way that makes one want to embrace it. If you know what I mean? Maybe not....” -- Anonymous internet comment on Chris Coles’ Paintings from the Bangkok Night.
Singapore Art Books, 2018
The Noir side of the Bangkok Night has always been one of its most delicious ingredients, kind of... more The Noir side of the Bangkok Night has always been one of its most delicious ingredients, kind of like that extra special secret sauce that makes the first taste of a Thai gourmet feast so exciting and interesting. Without the Noir and the nightlife, the bargirls, punters, ladyboys, rentboys and thousands of service staff, the assorted cast of thugs, scammers, traffickers, dealers, perverts, hitmen and the endless stream of fugitives from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and North America, not to mention from Thailand itself, without this glorious and colorful assortmrent of Noir characters and faces and posturing, the Bangkok Night would no longer be so spicy, colorful and fun.
But then, as if that weren’t enough, blend into Bangkok’s actual Noir, the delicious artistic and fictional Noir found in the Bangkok novels of Christopher G. Moore, Stephen Leather, Tim Hallinan and John Burdett, in the Thai gangster films like the original Pang brothers’ BANGKOK DANGEROUS (not the remake with Nicholas Cage which turned into a marshmellow) and Smith Timsawit’s PROVINCE 77, in the edgy hiphop soundtrack of Thaitanium and in my own series of Bangkok Noir paintings and portraits, you get an explosion of Noir, beautiful and frightening and thrilling all at once, making the Noir side of Bangkok a sparkling treasure to be savored and cherished, even if not actually consumed.....
Singapore Art Books, 2018
Located at the center of the vast and sprawling metropolis known as Bangkok, the notorious distri... more Located at the center of the vast and sprawling metropolis known as Bangkok, the notorious district known as Patpong is only a couple of rundown blocks, strewn with garbage and stray dogs, filled with stalls selling tawdry counterfeit goods, a sleazy row of go-go bars staffed by a few thousand girls who didn’t make it into the hi-end of the Bangkok Night and a thousand or so ladyboys wacked out on drugs, hormone injections and too much silicone.The millions of tourists who each year wonder through Patpong and make it all possible come from all over the world. Not exactly shining examples of First World bliss, they are often grotesquely overweight, dressed in a shabby assortment of sweat stained t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops, and weighted down with knapsacks, cameras and shopping bags filled with worthless knick knacks. Many of them are drunk and jetlagged, their faces showing the pain of unfulfilled and despairing lives.What these First World Ambassadors are looking for in the primordial mire of Patpong is an indecipherable mystery, even to themselves. As for the Thais, Patpong’s simply a place to work and make money. No matter how strange and shoddy the endless river of foreign tourists may look, by some set of circumstances very few Thais comprehend, these primitive beings are usually loaded with cash and happy to spend it on items which appear to be completely unnecessary. Counterfeit watches that last only a few months, girls who don’t actually want to have sex, ladyboys who are not even girls but do want to have sex and an endless stream of beer that will pass through their bloated bodies in less than an hour.At some point, the Patpong District will be torn down to make way for gleaming hi-rise offices and whatever Patpong is presently thought to be or actually was will gradually recede into the realm of mythic recollection, a moment in time between Bangkok’s murky Third World past and its bright First World future. Perhaps one day, the portraits in this book will be all that’s left……….
Singapore Art Books, 2018
My very 1st Exhibition in Thailand opened in December 2009, at a wonderful gallery in the upscale... more My very 1st Exhibition in Thailand opened in December 2009, at a wonderful gallery in the upscale Pratamnak District of Pattaya owned by Liam Ayudhkij, an Irishman who came to Thailand as a 21 year old backpacker and somehow managed to create a multi-million dollar business called PCS which employed over 25,000 people in Thailand.
Liam loved art and used his fortune to became one of the largest collectors of modern art in Thailand, often using his Pratamnak gallery to showcase some of his huge and very valuable collection.
My show at Liam’s Gallery featured almost one hundred of my paintings from the Bangkok Night, spread across the gallery’s 4 spacious floors. The Opening Night was also a launch party for the Bangkok author Christopher G. Moore’s two latest books, each one featuring one of my paintings on the cover. A novel titled “The Corruptionist” and a descriptive book of his Calvino Series titled, “The Vincent Calvino Reader’s Guide“.
BKK 101, 2011
Art Critic Steven Pettifor interviews American artist Chris Coles on his series of Bangkok Noir p... more Art Critic Steven Pettifor interviews American artist Chris Coles on his series of Bangkok Noir paintings for BKK 101 Magazine....
Noir Portraits from the Bangkok Night I, 2022
The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Specta... more The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Spectacle that takes place each and every night in the city of Bangkok, sprawling across miles and miles of this huge modern Metropolis, and catering to millions of people of every background, ethnicity and income level from all over Thailand, Asia and the World.
Among the many things that I have always found interesting while spending time in the Bangkok Night is the vast variety of people and faces that one encounters just wandering about through any random selection of night venues drawn from the tens of thousands of Bangkok cafes, restaurants, music clubs, executive clubs, bars, KTV’s, Hostess bars, discos, pool halls, After Hours clubs and street markets.
During a night out in Bangkok, one can cross paths and interact with people from many countries, speaking many languages, of every ethnicity, age, skintone, professional level, attitude, religion, philosophy, point of view and destiny.
In addition to the tasty food, multiple overlapping music tracks, vibrant colors and infinite variety of faces....the relaxed and friendly ambiance...the neon intensity....the density of hundreds of thousands of people moving about in close quarters, lit up, excited and eager, the fragrant smoke from ten thousands of street stalls wafting through the warm tropical air.
But in addition to being an actual place with actual people, the Bangkok Night is also, in my view, an Idea, a kind of Metaphor for the World in general and the State of Humanity in our Present Era. The portraits in this book reflect this point of view and are a mixture of actual people I have encountered wandering around in the Bangkok Night as well as actual people I have imagined wandering around in the Bangkok Night and entirely imaginary people who I imagine would be at home in the Bangkok Night.
Noir Portraits from the Bangkok Night II, 2022
The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Specta... more The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Spectacle that takes place each and every night in the city of Bangkok, sprawling across miles and miles of this huge modern Metropolis, and catering to millions of people of every background, ethnicity and income level from all over Thailand, Asia and the World.
Among the many things that I have always found interesting while spending time in the Bangkok Night is the vast variety of people and faces that one encounters just wandering about through any random selection of night venues drawn from the tens of thousands of Bangkok cafes, restaurants, music clubs, executive clubs, bars, KTV’s, Hostess bars, discos, pool halls, After Hours clubs and street markets.
During a night out in Bangkok, one can cross paths and interact with people from many countries, speaking many languages, of every ethnicity, age, skintone, professional level, attitude, religion, philosophy, point of view and destiny.
In addition to the tasty food, multiple overlapping music tracks, vibrant colors and infinite variety of faces....the relaxed and friendly ambiance...the neon intensity....the density of hundreds of thousands of people moving about in close quarters, lit up, excited and eager, the fragrant smoke from ten thousands of street stalls wafting through the warm tropical air.
But in addition to being an actual place with actual people, the Bangkok Night is also, in my view, an Idea, a kind of Metaphor for the World in general and the State of Humanity in our Present Era. The portraits in this book reflect this point of view and are a mixture of actual people I have encountered wandering around in the Bangkok Night as well as actual people I have imagined wandering around in the Bangkok Night and entirely imaginary people who I imagine would be at home in the Bangkok Night.
Noir Portraits from the Bangkok Night III, 2022
The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Specta... more The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Spectacle that takes place each and every night in the city of Bangkok, sprawling across miles and miles of this huge modern Metropolis, and catering to millions of people of every background, ethnicity and income level from all over Thailand, Asia and the World.
Among the many things that I have always found interesting while spending time in the Bangkok Night is the vast variety of people and faces that one encounters just wandering about through any random selection of night venues drawn from the tens of thousands of Bangkok cafes, restaurants, music clubs, executive clubs, bars, KTV’s, Hostess bars, discos, pool halls, After Hours clubs and street markets.
During a night out in Bangkok, one can cross paths and interact with people from many countries, speaking many languages, of every ethnicity, age, skintone, professional level, attitude, religion, philosophy, point of view and destiny.
In addition to the tasty food, multiple overlapping music tracks, vibrant colors and infinite variety of faces....the relaxed and friendly ambiance...the neon intensity....the density of hundreds of thousands of people moving about in close quarters, lit up, excited and eager, the fragrant smoke from ten thousands of street stalls wafting through the warm tropical air.
But in addition to being an actual place with actual people, the Bangkok Night is also, in my view, an Idea, a kind of Metaphor for the World in general and the State of Humanity in our Present Era. The portraits in this book reflect this point of view and are a mixture of actual people I have encountered wandering around in the Bangkok Night as well as actual people I have imagined wandering around in the Bangkok Night and entirely imaginary people who I imagine would be at home in the Bangkok Night.
Noir Portraits from the Bangkok Night IV, 2022
The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Specta... more The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Spectacle that takes place each and every night in the city of Bangkok, sprawling across miles and miles of this huge modern Metropolis, and catering to millions of people of every background, ethnicity and income level from all over Thailand, Asia and the World.
Among the many things that I have always found interesting while spending time in the Bangkok Night is the vast variety of people and faces that one encounters just wandering about through any random selection of night venues drawn from the tens of thousands of Bangkok cafes, restaurants, music clubs, executive clubs, bars, KTV’s, Hostess bars, discos, pool halls, After Hours clubs and street markets.
During a night out in Bangkok, one can cross paths and interact with people from many countries, speaking many languages, of every ethnicity, age, skintone, professional level, attitude, religion, philosophy, point of view and destiny.
In addition to the tasty food, multiple overlapping music tracks, vibrant colors and infinite variety of faces....the relaxed and friendly ambiance...the neon intensity....the density of hundreds of thousands of people moving about in close quarters, lit up, excited and eager, the fragrant smoke from ten thousands of street stalls wafting through the warm tropical air.
But in addition to being an actual place with actual people, the Bangkok Night is also, in my view, an Idea, a kind of Metaphor for the World in general and the State of Humanity in our Present Era. The portraits in this book reflect this point of view and are a mixture of actual people I have encountered wandering around in the Bangkok Night as well as actual people I have imagined wandering around in the Bangkok Night and entirely imaginary people who I imagine would be at home in the Bangkok Night.
Noir Portraits from the Bangkok Night V, 2022
The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Specta... more The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Spectacle that takes place each and every night in the city of Bangkok, sprawling across miles and miles of this huge modern Metropolis, and catering to millions of people of every background, ethnicity and income level from all over Thailand, Asia and the World.
Among the many things that I have always found interesting while spending time in the Bangkok Night is the vast variety of people and faces that one encounters just wandering about through any random selection of night venues drawn from the tens of thousands of Bangkok cafes, restaurants, music clubs, executive clubs, bars, KTV’s, Hostess bars, discos, pool halls, After Hours clubs and street markets.
During a night out in Bangkok, one can cross paths and interact with people from many countries, speaking many languages, of every ethnicity, age, skintone, professional level, attitude, religion, philosophy, point of view and destiny.
In addition to the tasty food, multiple overlapping music tracks, vibrant colors and infinite variety of faces....the relaxed and friendly ambiance...the neon intensity....the density of hundreds of thousands of people moving about in close quarters, lit up, excited and eager, the fragrant smoke from ten thousands of street stalls wafting through the warm tropical air.
But in addition to being an actual place with actual people, the Bangkok Night is also, in my view, an Idea, a kind of Metaphor for the World in general and the State of Humanity in our Present Era. The portraits in this book reflect this point of view and are a mixture of actual people I have encountered wandering around in the Bangkok Night as well as actual people I have imagined wandering around in the Bangkok Night and entirely imaginary people who I imagine would be at home in the Bangkok Night.
Noir Portraits from the Bangkok Night VI, 2022
The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Specta... more The phrase “Bangkok Night” refers to the huge, colorful and boisterous Night Entertainment Spectacle that takes place each and every night in the city of Bangkok, sprawling across miles and miles of this huge modern Metropolis, and catering to millions of people of every background, ethnicity and income level from all over Thailand, Asia and the World.
Among the many things that I have always found interesting while spending time in the Bangkok Night is the vast variety of people and faces that one encounters just wandering about through any random selection of night venues drawn from the tens of thousands of Bangkok cafes, restaurants, music clubs, executive clubs, bars, KTV’s, Hostess bars, discos, pool halls, After Hours clubs and street markets.
During a night out in Bangkok, one can cross paths and interact with people from many countries, speaking many languages, of every ethnicity, age, skintone, professional level, attitude, religion, philosophy, point of view and destiny.
In addition to the tasty food, multiple overlapping music tracks, vibrant colors and infinite variety of faces....the relaxed and friendly ambiance...the neon intensity....the density of hundreds of thousands of people moving about in close quarters, lit up, excited and eager, the fragrant smoke from ten thousands of street stalls wafting through the warm tropical air.
But in addition to being an actual place with actual people, the Bangkok Night is also, in my view, an Idea, a kind of Metaphor for the World in general and the State of Humanity in our Present Era. The portraits in this book reflect this point of view and are a mixture of actual people I have encountered wandering around in the Bangkok Night as well as actual people I have imagined wandering around in the Bangkok Night and entirely imaginary people who I imagine would be at home in the Bangkok Night.
Early Paintings from the Bangkok Night, 2021
This book contains some of my earliest paintings from the Bangkok Night. From around 2004 when I ... more This book contains some of my earliest paintings from the Bangkok Night. From around 2004 when I stopped doing graphite portraits of Bangkok faces and started following in the footsteps of the great German Expressionist Emil Nolde who used wild colors and distorted images to capture the essence of the Berlin Night circa 1920’s.
While my later paintings from the Bangkok Night feature larger more complicated scenes and a more complex use of color, some of them also becoming much larger acrylic on canvas images, these early watercolors have a lovely freshness, clarity and simplicity.
Night Spectacle, 2021
Down deep inside every human’s DNA, there is a primordial need for Night Spectacle. It is part o... more Down deep inside every human’s DNA, there is a primordial need for Night Spectacle. It is part of who we are. The paintings in this book capture moments in the largest Night Spectacle humankind has ever constructed, The Bangkok Night. In these Expressionist-Style paintings, I try to convey not only the illusion of excitement and desire permeating The Bangkok Night, but also the poignancy, the ugliness, the momentary glimpses of wonder and beauty, as well as the enormous loss of human potentials, damaged lives and tragedy.
Singapore Art Books, 2019
Walking Street Pattaya is the epicenter of what is probably the largest commercial sex zone on th... more Walking Street Pattaya is the epicenter of what is probably the largest commercial sex zone on the face of the Earth and in the history of the world. Until the late 1960’s, Pattaya, about 70 miles southeast of Bangkok, was a sleepy fishing village. Then the Vietnam War brought tens of thousands of young male American military personnel to a dozen or so bases in Thailand, including a large air base near Pattaya called U-Tapao. Always on the lookout for R&R entertainment, young American soldiers, airmen and sailors started hanging out at a few small beach bars in tiny Pattaya. Thais, who are very enterprenural and quick off the mark, immediately understood that more bars, clubs and girls for more young American soldiers, airmen and sailors meant more money. And so began Pattaya as a center for nightlife. By the end of the Vietnam War, there were several hundred bars, clubs and “entertainment” venues in Pattaya, mainly along Beach Road but also extending into a pedestrian-only area called Walking Street. After the war ended and the American soldiers, airmen and sailors disappeared, the era of Jumbo Jets and cheap air travel arrived. European, Australian and American men began arriving in Pattaya by the hundreds of thousands. More bars, clubs, “entertainment” venues and more bargirls, ladyboys and even rentboys. And more money, a lot more money. Then the internet provided quick information and communication, ATM’s provided endless cash, mobile phones became easy contact points and Viagra allowed for infinite desire. More hundreds of bars, clubs, “entertainment venues”, hotels large and small. Then on top of the first wave of Europeans, Australians and Americans, hundreds of thousands of Japanese, Koreans, Taiwanese, Singaporeans. Then millions of Russians, followed by millions of Chinese, millions of Arabs, Iranians and finally, millions of South Asian males from India. Until Pattaya became the huge nightlife spectacle it is today with tens of thousands of bars, clubs and “entertainment” venues, over ten million visitors per year and hundreds of thousands of sex workers to service them all. Mainly from Isan/NE Thailand but also from Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. On a Friday night, there might be over a hundred thousand tourists, mainly male, just on Walking Street. From every country in Asia and every country on Earth. Neon density, high velocity, powerful audio systems playing dozens of overlapping music tracks. Cheap hotels, great food, tropical air, the beach, the Gulf of Thailand. And in every direction slim, cute, smiling girls, hungry ladyboys and rentboys.
Singapore Art Books, 2019
Writings, Reviews & Interviews with Chris Coles about his Expressionist-Style paintings from the ... more Writings, Reviews & Interviews with Chris Coles about his Expressionist-Style paintings from the Bangkok Night....
Singapore Art Books, 2019
For many people around the world, when they think of Thailand, they think of a faraway place that... more For many people around the world, when they think of Thailand, they think of a faraway place that is “Oriental”, exotic, alluring, filled with golden temples, unspoiled tropical beaches. Someplace exciting, populated with sensual brown-skinned smiling females. All the escapist images that are constantly being fed into the world’s information stream, many of them with the help of TAT, Tourist Authority Thailand, one of the world’s most successful tourism marketing entities, are there to help generate the 40 million or so tourists a year who contribute billions of dollars a year to Thailand’s GDP.
Alas, the actual everyday Thailand is far from exotic, not “Oriental” or alluring and definitely not exciting. Many of the beaches are hardly “unspoiled” and a large number of the females are working in Japanese-owned factories, huge construction sites, in the agricultural sector or cleaning toilets in hotel rooms....neither sensual nor smiling.
The Thailand reality, like most everyday realities, is basically mundane. Thailand is a mid-level developing country inhabited by about 65 million relatively low-income people and saturated with un-zoned, un-checked urban/suburban structures sprawling in every direction, especially along Thailand’s messy highways.
This book presents the everyday reality version of modern Thailand rather than the escapist tourism version that’s been so successfully promoted by TAT and the hundreds of escapist fantasy photo books that line the shelves of Kinokuniya and other Thai bookstores.
Singapore Art Books, 2019
One night when I came across an elderly German guy by the name of Kris Kolde hanging out in a bee... more One night when I came across an elderly German guy by the name of Kris Kolde hanging out in a beer bar on Soi Nana, an epicenter for sleazy Bangkok nightlife catering to Westerners, Arabs and Japanese, and he showed me some of his little watercolor paintings, I recognized him immediately to be a Reincarnation of the long dead German Expressionist Artist/Genius Emil Nolde who used extreme color and distortion to depict the essence of Berlin’s degenerate nitelife back in the 1920’s. Kris and I became friends, due to my interest and admiration for his paintings and also the odd similarity in our names. Alas, a few months later, he was run over late one night trying to cross Sukhumvit Road and died almost instantly. Among his papers was a note asking me to look after his paintings which I took to be a great honor. Thus this book......
Singapore Art Books, 2019
When I first did some flower paintings it was mainly for my mother back on the coast of Maine, so... more When I first did some flower paintings it was mainly for my mother back on the coast of Maine, so she could hang some of my paintings in her house which were not paintings from the Bangkok Night. But over time, I learned that the German Expressionists, especially my Expressionist hero Emil Nolde, also did flower paintings...in the Expressionist style. Distorted, non-realistic, exaggerated colors, a little bit weird. And in the Bangkok Night, the girls in the bars are sometimes referred to as “flowers” and the men who are chasing them are sometimes referred to as “butterflies”. By necessity, flowers are colorful and heavily scented. In order to better attract the bees, insects and butterflies they depend on for pollination and reproduction. Butterflies are also often very colorful and their color patterns are an important element in butterfly male-female attraction and stimulating the urge to reproduce. Both flowers and butterflies have relatively short lifespans so the urgency of attraction, pollination and reproduction is at the forefront of their daily existence. Humans put a high value on flowers, despite their transient nature, using them around births, marriages, deaths, Valentine’s Day and Spring Fertility holidays like Easter. Somehow, flowers are important and they also make great paintings!
Singapore Art Books, 2019
December thru February 2011, one of Bangkok’s trendiest upscale nightclubs, Bed Supperclub, was t... more December thru February 2011, one of Bangkok’s trendiest upscale nightclubs, Bed Supperclub, was the setting for my “Portraits from the Bangkok Night” show.An average of about 500 people a night for 3 months, about 50,000 people in all, viewed the show. Unlike a traditional art gallery which gets a crowd on the Opening Night and then only a few people in the days after that.Bed Supperclub’s stylish nightclub-style lighting which included a little bit of Black Light gave the portraits a lovely florescent glow, perfect for creating the ambiance of the Bangkok Night.It was great to see my paintings being enjoyed “in” the Bangkok Night, as part of the Bangkok Night, not just as paintings “of” the Bangkok Night....
Singapore Art Books, 2019
In this series of paintings from the Phnom Penh Night, I am following in the footsteps of the gre... more In this series of paintings from the Phnom Penh Night, I am following in the footsteps of the great German Expressionists, using distortion and extreme colors to dive below surface “Realism” into a deeper, darker more hidden part of the human experience known as the Phnom Penh Night, a setting filled with tragedy and fear but also a certain poignancy and sometimes a ferocious beauty. The Opening Night at Meta House Gallery in Phnom Penh featured a wonderful live concert performance from Phnom Penh’s KROM Band, starring lead singer/composer Sophea Chamroeun, composer/steel guitarist/vocalist Christopher Minko, Side Guitar and Instrumentalist Jimi Baeck and keyboard artist Mao Sokleap. Bangkok Author Christopher G. Moore also gave a short talk on the SE Asia Noir Movement of writers, poets, musicians, artists and filmmakers who make use of SE Asia’s seemingly infinite abundance of noir material as the setting, inspiration and backdrop for their creative vison and work. Appreciation and thanks to Nico Mesterharm, the Cultural Impraesario behind Meta House and all it’s myriad of programs and cultural events.
Singapore Art Books, 2019
“Chris Coles paintings and artwork is very striking I guess I would say. They remind me of Zappa ... more “Chris Coles paintings and artwork is very striking I guess I would say. They remind me of Zappa lyrics...’gross and perverted, obsessed and deranged’. His colors are so primitive and their throbbing clash on your eyes and senses ooze a sense of darkness, of evil even. Yet, they are almost playful at times and amusing as well. His work reminds me of what I expect to see when I am fairly obliterated and moving aside the thick velvet curtain of the umpteenth ‘next’ gogo bar, the one I know I should not go in, but enter I do. You know, the bar with the katoey mamasan with the garish make-up that glows under the black lights that scares the bejesus out of you as his/her face looms in your drunken blurry field of vision. Coles captures the extra-dimensional feel of the Thailand nightlife. His work occupies another zone of existence. It’s so ugly at times it is intriguing in a perverse way that makes one want to embrace it. If you know what I mean? Maybe not....” -- Anonymous internet comment on Chris Coles’ Paintings from the Bangkok Night.
Singapore Art Books, 2018
The Noir side of the Bangkok Night has always been one of its most delicious ingredients, kind of... more The Noir side of the Bangkok Night has always been one of its most delicious ingredients, kind of like that extra special secret sauce that makes the first taste of a Thai gourmet feast so exciting and interesting. Without the Noir and the nightlife, the bargirls, punters, ladyboys, rentboys and thousands of service staff, the assorted cast of thugs, scammers, traffickers, dealers, perverts, hitmen and the endless stream of fugitives from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and North America, not to mention from Thailand itself, without this glorious and colorful assortmrent of Noir characters and faces and posturing, the Bangkok Night would no longer be so spicy, colorful and fun.
But then, as if that weren’t enough, blend into Bangkok’s actual Noir, the delicious artistic and fictional Noir found in the Bangkok novels of Christopher G. Moore, Stephen Leather, Tim Hallinan and John Burdett, in the Thai gangster films like the original Pang brothers’ BANGKOK DANGEROUS (not the remake with Nicholas Cage which turned into a marshmellow) and Smith Timsawit’s PROVINCE 77, in the edgy hiphop soundtrack of Thaitanium and in my own series of Bangkok Noir paintings and portraits, you get an explosion of Noir, beautiful and frightening and thrilling all at once, making the Noir side of Bangkok a sparkling treasure to be savored and cherished, even if not actually consumed.....
Singapore Art Books, 2018
Located at the center of the vast and sprawling metropolis known as Bangkok, the notorious distri... more Located at the center of the vast and sprawling metropolis known as Bangkok, the notorious district known as Patpong is only a couple of rundown blocks, strewn with garbage and stray dogs, filled with stalls selling tawdry counterfeit goods, a sleazy row of go-go bars staffed by a few thousand girls who didn’t make it into the hi-end of the Bangkok Night and a thousand or so ladyboys wacked out on drugs, hormone injections and too much silicone.The millions of tourists who each year wonder through Patpong and make it all possible come from all over the world. Not exactly shining examples of First World bliss, they are often grotesquely overweight, dressed in a shabby assortment of sweat stained t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops, and weighted down with knapsacks, cameras and shopping bags filled with worthless knick knacks. Many of them are drunk and jetlagged, their faces showing the pain of unfulfilled and despairing lives.What these First World Ambassadors are looking for in the primordial mire of Patpong is an indecipherable mystery, even to themselves. As for the Thais, Patpong’s simply a place to work and make money. No matter how strange and shoddy the endless river of foreign tourists may look, by some set of circumstances very few Thais comprehend, these primitive beings are usually loaded with cash and happy to spend it on items which appear to be completely unnecessary. Counterfeit watches that last only a few months, girls who don’t actually want to have sex, ladyboys who are not even girls but do want to have sex and an endless stream of beer that will pass through their bloated bodies in less than an hour.At some point, the Patpong District will be torn down to make way for gleaming hi-rise offices and whatever Patpong is presently thought to be or actually was will gradually recede into the realm of mythic recollection, a moment in time between Bangkok’s murky Third World past and its bright First World future. Perhaps one day, the portraits in this book will be all that’s left……….
Singapore Art Books, 2018
My very 1st Exhibition in Thailand opened in December 2009, at a wonderful gallery in the upscale... more My very 1st Exhibition in Thailand opened in December 2009, at a wonderful gallery in the upscale Pratamnak District of Pattaya owned by Liam Ayudhkij, an Irishman who came to Thailand as a 21 year old backpacker and somehow managed to create a multi-million dollar business called PCS which employed over 25,000 people in Thailand.
Liam loved art and used his fortune to became one of the largest collectors of modern art in Thailand, often using his Pratamnak gallery to showcase some of his huge and very valuable collection.
My show at Liam’s Gallery featured almost one hundred of my paintings from the Bangkok Night, spread across the gallery’s 4 spacious floors. The Opening Night was also a launch party for the Bangkok author Christopher G. Moore’s two latest books, each one featuring one of my paintings on the cover. A novel titled “The Corruptionist” and a descriptive book of his Calvino Series titled, “The Vincent Calvino Reader’s Guide“.
BKK 101, 2011
Art Critic Steven Pettifor interviews American artist Chris Coles on his series of Bangkok Noir p... more Art Critic Steven Pettifor interviews American artist Chris Coles on his series of Bangkok Noir paintings for BKK 101 Magazine....
Bangkok Eyes, 2013
"Noir", as applied to the arts, is a word, a genre, a movement that even many of the purveyors ca... more "Noir", as applied to the arts, is a word, a genre, a movement that even many of the purveyors can find hard to define. And when it is applied to our local version, “Bangkok Noir”, it sometimes becomes impossible to get a clear answer as to what the term encompasses. However, the one universal, inescapable element is it’s link to the “Bangkok Night Scene”.
TNN TV24
Suranand Vejjajiva interviews American artist Chris Coles about his Expressionist-style paintings... more Suranand Vejjajiva interviews American artist Chris Coles about his Expressionist-style paintings from the Bangkok Night for Thailand's TNN TV 24.
Times Record, 2014
Capturing a scene at once exotic and volatile, it’s hard to identify the point at which artist Ch... more Capturing a scene at once exotic and volatile, it’s hard to identify the point at which artist Chris Coles’s paintings of the Bangkok nightlife veer from reality to expressionism.....
Khi Kwai Blog, 2008
Soi 4, just off Sukhumvit Road, is not quite as smooth as silk. A uniquely Thai blend of fermenti... more Soi 4, just off Sukhumvit Road, is not quite as smooth as silk. A uniquely Thai blend of fermenting piss, rotting compost, exhaust fumes, and burnt-out cooking oils is rendered only more asphyxiating by the cheap incense smoldering by the ubiquitous makeshift shrine. Steam rises from the roadside foodstalls that cramp the narrow, potholed sidewalk; it is with great difficulty that it finally dissipates into the thick, damp air. A bewildering lineup of dead animals on a stick lie on display on pushcarts, alongside tropical fruit whose freshness has long evaporated on the foggy plexiglass shielding it from the flies and the dust. Whole roasted chickens sit on bare tables next to fake eyelashes and make-up, flanked by rows of size zero tank-tops and lingerie. Typically most transfixing to newcomer and repeat offender alike is the repugnant assortment of deep-fried crickets, roaches, locusts, and other bugs sold here by the bagful. They are a favorite with the go-go dancers, who can at times be
New Mandala, 2013
I think it’s interesting that Expressionist art in the 1900 to 1930 or so time frame in Germany b... more I think it’s interesting that Expressionist art in the 1900 to 1930 or so time frame in Germany blossomed amidst a period of tremendous social change and chaos. During a period when traditional social structures were rapidly disintegrating and in the context of the large-scale slaughter of millions of people that took place in Europe in and around World War One, much of which personally touched and dramatically impacted on the lives of the Expressionist artists themselves.While these circumstances are not the same as the circumstances in South East Asia over the last fifty years, it seems to me that there are similarities to the often violent transformation and rapid, disruptive changes that have been taking place throughout South East Asia in the last half-century.
ENCOUNTER Magazine, 2013
When Expressionism as a movement and as a painting style first appeared in Germany in the beginni... more When Expressionism as a movement and as a painting style first appeared in Germany in the beginning of the 20th century, it was not only a reaction to the previous reigning era of Impressionism in art, it was also a response to a widespread anxiety about humanity’s increasingly discordant relationship with the world and the loss of feelings of authenticity and spirituality. Capitalism was on the rise, rapid urbanization shattered the safety of traditional social molds and it’s by-products, alienated, wandering, suffering individuals sprawled across the city of Berlin and by the 1920’s, the rest of Europe.
The subjects depicted by the Expressionist artists like Beckmann, Nolde and Kirchner were very often the creatures of the night, the decadent consumers, drinkers and customers of the bars, brothels and dance halls, the prostitutes, dancers and cheap street girls, all tired, weary, troubled, horrible and horrified. And apparently all having fun, or at least pretending to have fun, while the world was falling apart…Expressionism grew later into the abstract expressionism confirming perhaps that the more senseless the world is, the more abstract the art becomes.
The last we saw of Expressionism was, again starting in Germany, the Neo-Expressionist School of the 1980’s. And then – surprisingly, but not at all unlikely, another Expressionist artist surfaced in Bangkok. Chris Coles is an American painter who worked in a movie industry before settling in Bangkok in the late 1990’s – to paint. He is a member of the Bangkok Noir Movement and the only painter among the well known artists who gather around it, like the writers John Burdett and Christopher Moore.
Chris Coles likes to say there is a noir movement in Bangkok. The quantum world has a lesson: we ... more Chris Coles likes to say there is a noir movement in Bangkok. The quantum world has a lesson: we must choose between measuring position and velocity of particle. Noir, for me, moves so fast, I can never nail down exactly where it is, where it has been or where it is going. It is a particle in motion smashing through the walls, consciousness and lives of people living in the City of Angels.
Every artistic movement is created by a group of writers, painters, photographers, filmmakers, and lyricists. While they mostly work in isolation from each other, they draw from the same material, and their creativity combines into a larger force than any one of them. In the case of the Bangkok Noir movement, the idea of a noir community started to take shape as these artistic individuals began to assemble in ever larger numbers about ten years ago. A number of factors, social and political, have come together to form a critical mass, allowing for the noir movement to not only take hold but to gain international attention. Mass media and mass tourism has helped to make the developmental changes into the kind of perfect storm that feeds the instability and insecurity that creates noir.
Asia Media LMU, 2012
“Navigating the Bangkok Noir", a book of paintings by American artist Chris Coles, takes a differ... more “Navigating the Bangkok Noir", a book of paintings by American artist Chris Coles, takes a different route into Bangkok’s underbelly. This series of expressionist paintings in book form, published by Marshall Cavendish and accompanied by sensitive and insightful captions by the artist, somehow manages to take us to the same places that the Bangkok hacks frequent without falling for the same cliches. Perhaps painting is a better medium to portray the sadness and beauty, the darkness and the occasional rays of bright shining light – in short the unearthly glow of the Thai capital – than the written word. Perhaps, because Thailand prides itself on its anti-intellectualism, Coles’ images transcend the prostitute Disneyland of countless wasted pulp novels and bring some real dignity and, most importantly, substance to its subjects.
Bangkok Eyes, 2010
Bangkok’s nightworld constantly expands and has done so in three dimensions for several decades -... more Bangkok’s nightworld constantly expands 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......
THE NATION, 2018
As the sun sets, the Bangkok Night and its fabulous Neon comes to life. The air cools, the traffi... more As the sun sets, the Bangkok Night and its fabulous Neon comes to life. The air cools, the traffic calms, and Bangkok’s faults disappear into a glossy and seductive darkness. Beautiful women and stylish men fill the sidewalks, along with a billion food stalls, a million motorcycle taxis and ten thousands of soi dogs. Music drifts through nighttime breezes scented with jasmine and the smell of spicy smoke. And lighting up every boulevard, street and soi, across the entire metropolis, trillions of little fairy lights and millions of signs. Every kind of sign in every kind of language with every typestyle and color, from gigantic to small, stylish to outlandish, some blinking, some discreet, some ordinary, others wacky. Very few cities anywhere on this planet have the number and variety of signs as are spread across the vastness of the Bangkok Night. With little apparent zoning, control or censorship, the only limit is the imagination and when it comes to applying visual imagination to the business of Night Entertainment, Thais are second to none. What follows is a taste of the Bangkok Night’s neon signs along with some of the mood and feeling they create......enticement, the promise of pleasure, glowing neon colors hissing in thick humid air.
Traversing the Orient Magazine, 2013
The Bangkok Noir Movement is blossoming, not only with novelists like Christopher G, Moore, John ... more The Bangkok Noir Movement is blossoming, not only with novelists like Christopher G, Moore, John Burdett and Tim Hallinan, musicians, poets, filmmakers but also artists as per Chris Coles recent show at the Koi Gallery in Bangkok....
New Mandala, 2011
Every artistic movement is created by a group of writers, painters, photographers, filmmakers, an... more Every artistic movement is created by a group of writers, painters, photographers, filmmakers, and lyricists. While they mostly work in isolation from each other, they draw from the same material, and their creativity combines into a larger force than any one of them. In the case of the Bangkok Noir movement, the idea of a noir community started to take shape as these artistic individuals began to assemble in ever larger numbers about ten years ago. A number of factors, social and political, have come together to form a critical mass, allowing for the noir movement to not only take hold but to gain international attention. Mass media and mass tourism has helped to make the developmental changes into the kind of perfect storm that feeds the instability and insecurity that creates noir.
Bangkok Post, 2011
American artist Chris Coles illuminates the Bangkok night and its many denizens in an ongoing exh... more American artist Chris Coles illuminates the Bangkok night and its many denizens in an ongoing exhibition and book of paintings that capture a side of the city more commonly swept under the carpet Chris Coles in a book on noir and an ongoing exhibition at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand is one of the few artists to record the people and transactions of Bangkok's red light districts with all their vivid idiosyncrasies. He paints bright scenes in acrylics or watercolours, shapes the human form simply through thick black lines and captures some essential truths of a tawdry reality. Part of a growing literary and artistic movement known as Bangkok noir, he adds his strokes of bounteous colour to a scene dominated by crime writers. Noir is often characterised by cynicism, fatalism and moral ambiguity _ a literal and figurative darkness for which Bangkok provides some fertile territory.
Poets in Bangkok, 2017
Donald Quist and Colin Cheney interview the American painter Chris Coles at Brainwake Cafe in Ban... more Donald Quist and Colin Cheney interview the American painter Chris Coles at Brainwake Cafe in Bangkok's Sukhumvit District for their Poets in Bangkok podcast. Very interesting to hear about Chris paintings and the origins of his paintings and how he came to Bangkok.
Much of the Noir fiction written about Bangkok is set in and around what is often referred to as ... more Much of the Noir fiction written about Bangkok is set in and around what is often referred to as the Bangkok Night. But what actually is the Bangkok Night? The answer usually depends on who you ask. There’s the so-called real or objective version which turns out to be so subjective., it’s difficult to find two people who would agree on what it is.
Then there’s the mythic version which doesn’t really describe an objective reality but is more an entertaining yet hazy cloud of accumulated lore. Magazine and newspaper articles, tv reports, sensational and otherwise, pop music songs like One Night in Bangkok, stories told by friends and acquaintances, various newspaper reports or blog posts.
Bangkok Noir/Southeast Asia Noir is fertile and deep and provides a rich almost infinite source o... more Bangkok Noir/Southeast Asia Noir is fertile and deep and provides a rich almost infinite source of materials, ideas, stories and visual images for all sorts of writers, musicians, film-makers and artists.