Renowned Thai artist Patcharapon Tangruen, better known by his moniker Alex Face, recently completed his most ambitious artistic pilgrimage yet: a 1,200km cycling journey from Bangkok, Thailand to George Town, Penang, interspersed with frequent stops to paint.

His two-week adventure culminated in Faded Landscapes, a solo exhibition showcasing the 21 paintings he made along the way, capturing fleeting moments of inspiration on portable canvases as landscapes shift around him.

Presented by Cultprint and Bangkok CityCity Gallery, the artworks are currently on display at Cultprint by Zach Studio on Lebuh Melayu in George Town until May 18.

Thai artist Alex Face (left) speaks to a visitor at 'Faded Landscapes', his solo exhibition in George Town. It captures the rapidly changing countryside scenes between Bangkok and Penang. — ANTOINE LONCLE

Founded in 2020 as a print studio in George Town by artist couple Ernest Zacharevic and Sheena Liam, Cultprint has grown into an international gallery space, drawing in street artists and creatives from around the world.

The cycling journey from Bangkok to Penang is a continuation of Alex Face’s En Plein Air landscape painting series, which began in 2024 with his first journey to Khao Lak and his hometown, Chachoengsao, followed by another in Chiang Mai.

“I’ve had the idea of cycling across South-East Asia and painting the landscapes along the way since the pandemic, so when Cultprint invited me to do an exhibition in Penang, I thought that 1,200km was a reasonable distance to cycle from home in Bangkok to the gallery in George Town. (And) without taking too much time,” says Alex Face, 44, in an email interview.

“As an artist, I want to capture the landscape as it is in that moment and preserve it through painting,” he says.

“A landscape may seem ordinary now, but with time, it becomes more meaningful.”

Hitting the open road

Travelling by bicycle from Bangkok to Penang is no easy feat by any means, and luckily, Alex Face didn’t go through the journey alone.

Dream Graff, a group of street artist friends (from Chiang Mai) who have been spray painting on the street with Alex Face for over 10 years, came along for the ride.

The bicycle Alex Face rode on his journey is seen at the exhibition. — ANTOINE LONCLE

“The trip consisted of two bicycles and a car. Two friends, Minimao and Sanchai, drove the truck carrying art supplies and video recording equipment to film the documentary during the trip, while another friend, Kanaet, rode a bicycle with me.

“I planned to travel around 100km each day, and had a rough idea of where I would stop to paint during the two weeks of travel. In total, I cycled about 800km – there were some times when I had to travel by car for safety at night time. We also found cheap hotels along the beach to shower and recharge our devices,” says Alex Face.

Besides painting landscapes, the artist also remained true to his roots and made a few stops to spray paint on the walls along the trip.

Alex Face and his crew faced blistering heat along the way, but he wouldn’t trade his experiences for anything.

“Everything was a challenge, whether it was keeping up with the physicality of cycling or the creative process of painting. I tried to choose the best spots to stop at, but I had to contend with the weather, which was either rainy or really hot.

“I saw all these challenges as fun. My way of releasing my fatigue during the journey was to paint. It was a time to rest both my body and my mind,” he says.

'My way of releasing my fatigue during the journey was to paint. It was a time to rest both my body and my mind,' says Alex Face.

When deciding where to paint, Alex Face says some locations had long been bookmarked in his mind – places he often passed during drives down south. He had simply been waiting for the right moment to return and leave his mark there.

There were landscapes with a ticking clock that he wanted to explore before they were lost due to big construction projects, and others that were purely coincidental, spots that he happened upon and caught his eye, such as a seaside field with purple, pink, and orange flowers, or a hill that was burned and had broken branches.

“There were also places I wanted to draw to express my feelings while travelling, such as the rice fields in Alor Setar (Kedah), which I felt like drawing to express the heat of the weather that I had to face while cycling through the open fields all day,” he says.

All in the little details

Alex Face’s signature style is an unorthodox blend of fine arts and street culture, balancing playful surrealism with deeply poignant themes, such as the fragile relationship between childhood innocence and an unpredictable world.

His most recognisable calling card is a nameless character that was inspired by his daughter, who was born in 2009.

“This character could represent any child of any gender and race. I drew the child character to talk about the future of the next generation, the challenges they will face in the future world, which may arise from the concerns of fathers and the question of what kind of society our children will grow up in,” he explains.

Global traveller Alex Face with his graffiti work Fragile (2024) in New York.

The character appears in the landscapes Alex Face painted for this exhibition, and over the years, has undergone many changes.

“At first, it looked exactly like my daughter when she was a baby. Then, when I started thinking about the constant changes in society, and I didn’t know what our children would have to face in the future, it gradually evolved into a child wearing a bunny costume with a third eye,” he says.

The keen adventurer goes on to say that the third eye symbol can be interpreted in many ways, depending on the culture, which influenced how the character would take form.

“To me, it represents the ability to see beyond what is visible to the naked eye. In some cultures, it symbolises good energy, while in others, it is associated with evil. Because of these differing interpretations, I adjust the presence of the third eye in my character depending on the area that I’m working in. Sometimes, my character doesn’t have this third eye. Sometimes, they have two or four eyes.

“This is because when working on the walls of a community in different cities, I am always aware that I am just a stranger. But the people who have to live with the images I draw every day are the people in that community. In a way, this character has taught me to respect people in communities who have different ideas and cultures,” he says.

When asked if he had any memorable moments that stuck in his mind from the journey, Alex says that he wouldn’t be able to pick a single spot, painting, or person that he met along the way as the most memorable.

“The most memorable thing for me would be the whole experience I had throughout the trip, from leaving home to reaching my destination, to the opening day of the exhibition.

“There were impressive details in the little things I encountered every day, whether it was the changing landscape along the way, the small obstacles along the way,” he concludes.

Alex Face’s Faded Landscapes is showing at Cultprint on Lebuh Melayu, George Town, Penang until May 18. Open: Friday to Sunday, noon to 7pm. More info: cultprint.co.