Chow Ciao Chow paints portraits that look like a snapshot of feeling, not a photograph, and Chow Ciao Chow has turned MUM’s NOT HOME into the place where those colors live.
In an age when everyone carries a smartphone and photographs are the default memory, Chow chose a paintbrush instead. He favors bold, unexpected color, giving faces red cheeks, blue noses, and green brows so each portrait reads as a bright, unforgettable character rather than a literal likeness.
Chow Ciao Chow at MUM’s NOT HOME
Chow is a young Hong Kong artist who trained in fashion design before shifting to fine art. In 2014 he and friends opened an experimental space called MUM’s NOT HOME, and that step led him to become a full-time artist.
The storefront that others might call cramped became his creative laboratory. There he tried cutting hair, making DIY goods, sewing and altering clothes, and eventually launched his own small product line alongside his paintings.
MUM’s NOT HOME grew with him. Over eight years the space sharpened his identity and his signature style. The cafe now doubles as his painting studio; when guests visit, he serves drinks and then returns to the corner where he works.
“My portraits are colorful because I am happy here.”
Chow said his use of color grew out of the freedom he found at MUM’s NOT HOME. As a fashion sketch artist his early drawings were monochrome. Working in the space opened a different emotional register, and he began to layer bright hues to match the mood he felt.
“At first I painted in one color or with only one or two tones, I was not so daring,” he said. “Then two colors were not enough, so I started adding many more. I realized portraiture does not have to chase photographic realism. If you capture the features and the gaze, and add your own style, the work becomes more compelling.”
He said the cafe itself is saturated with color, and he wanted his paintings to stand out inside that environment. Over time he learned how to place blocks of color to build visual depth and to reflect personality through composition.
“MUM’s NOT HOME is a safe zone.”
We found MUM’s NOT HOME up a narrow stairwell above Shanghai Street in Yau Ma Tei, a dense neighborhood in Kowloon. The entrance feels like stepping into someone’s home: plants, vintage objects, secondhand clothing, and small handmade goods share space with his paintings.
Chow described the venue as more gallery than conventional cafe, an immersive setting where visitors can learn about him before they read a label. “There are many things here that let you know me, then the work follows,” he said.
He said the space belongs to him, so he does not feel he must please a wider audience. That permission to be bold made him take more risks in color and form. “If my work were shown elsewhere I might worry about pleasing people. Here I make things that make me happy, and that makes me bolder,” he said.
To emphasize the cafe’s separation from the street, Chow purposely designed the doorway as a low arch that requires visitors to bow slightly on entry, a tiny ritual that signals they are moving into a different, playful world.
He wants guests to step away from the noise outside and enjoy the simple pleasures of tea and cake while being wrapped by color. “I want people to say ‘wow’ when they enter. I want them to see how unreal this place is, and how that unreality itself is real,” he said.
When the cafe is quiet he returns to his seat to paint. Chow prefers the buzz of people around him. “I like to be surrounded by others. If it is too quiet I cannot paint,” he said. His focus on people makes portraiture his natural subject.
“I want everyone to admire themselves.”
Chow began taking portrait commissions from his Instagram account. He showed us a heavy sketchbook that holds 100 portraits he completed over two years, a personal record of faces that chart his development and the marks people left on his life.
His C.C.C. Commission Portrait series exaggerates features with color, even tinting hair, to give each face a bold, confident glow. “I want everyone to appreciate themselves,” he said. He prefers a little theatrical self-regard to relying on others for validation.
From those portraits he expanded into emotionally focused bodies of work such as No More Sorrow Collection and Your Sunshine Is Crying. In the studio he can be playful, showing us jewelry, recounting memories with theatrical gestures, and even rolling on the floor for a photo. Yet he also explores sadness.
Those two series depict a deflated, low-energy state, and Chow said he likes to wrap sadness in cheer to make it easier to accept. “The sun can laugh and cry at the same time,” he said. “I want people to know crying is not shameful. It is normal to be unhappy sometimes.”
His sunshine motif points to our shared emotional cycle: we brighten other people, and sometimes we dim. The portraits insist that everyone has a luminous quality to discover.
“I believe in a happy-go-lucky approach.”
Chow said the grind of his former life as an employee left him exhausted. Opening MUM’s NOT HOME and focusing on his own rhythm returned a sense of freedom and removed the pressure of deadlines.
He joked that he sometimes feels like a decorative presence in the cafe, but in reality both he and the owner, Makui, do all the hands-on work, from serving to cleaning. He described a creative ethic: pay attention to small, ordinary tasks and they will grow into something meaningful.
“Take boring things seriously and they will grow.”
He called his current practice “doing boring things seriously.” He believes boredom can be the starting point for creation, and persistence turns that focus into a practice that looks like art to others.
Asked how he would describe himself as an artist, he replied without hesitation: free and spontaneous. He paints because it is fun, not to meet an external standard of professional production.
“If you want to live like this you must value money less,” he said. “This life will not pay the same as a regular job, but it gives you things you cannot earn at the office.”
He said he feels content, that his family supports him, and that he has no complaints. He hopes to show others an alternative way to live, one in which letting go of habit can make possible new ways of being.
Looking around the cafe at faces both laughing and crying, it is clear each emotion feels sincere. The bright colors are not decoration alone; they are an invitation to notice small moments of joy. We left hoping Chow will keep making work that spreads that feeling.
Executive Producer: Angus Mok
Producer: Vicky Wai
Editor: Ruby Yiu
Videography: Andy Lee, Angus Chau
Photography: Andy Lee, Angus Chau
Video Editor: Andy Lee
Designer: Edwina Chan
Location: MUM’s NOT HOME
Special Thanks: Chow Ciao Chow
