"Noir" is a word that is quietly growing - nay, pushing it's way up into the English language like one of those giant luminous mushrooms in Alice In Wonderland.   So then, what exactly is "Noir"?   We are aware that it is derived from the French word for 'black', but then what?   "Noir", while not surreal like Alice In Wonderland, does have an element of other-real - a distinctly darker real.   Noir is one of those words that each of us feels he knows, if only on a visceral level - but no one can really get down to brass tacks and nail it down.   Those that do try to define it either use too many words, or come back tomorrow and say, "What I meant by that was....".

         On the other hand, 'Noir' can, and has been represented through the arts, and entirely without words.   (Even Charles Lutwidge Dodgson knew that in the altered, somewhat darker reality of Alice In Wonderland, Alice herself, the mushrooms and the Cheshire Cat, et al, would have to be illustrated....)   

         Enter artist Chris Coles and his unique and sometimes outrageous portrayals of Bangkok's nightlife.    The night-scene and it's variegated nightcrawlers have been captured freeze-frame in Chris Coles' imagination.   - And then reflected back in black-light and neon in this kaleidoscopic series of paintings.   Mr Coles', seemingly without effort, is the very first to have captured on canvas that elusive, nearly ineffable "Bangkok Noir" - he is a Bangkok original; to miss this exhibition would be to your own regret....