Five Fits With: artist Mark Bo Chu

The Melbourne-based artist chats with Esquire about his interest in painting mundane streetscapes, how his style has evolved over the years, and his favourite places to shop and eat around the city

By Tyler Dane Wingco

Published: May 22, 2025

Five Fits With Mark Bo Chu — Esquire’s Five Fits With: Mark Bo Chu. All photography: Nick Timson

YOU WOULDN’T GIVE these scenes a second glance if you saw them in real life, but Mark Bo Chu asks you to. The sky he paints over his hometown of Melbourne is fully charged; the faces in kitchens and behind registers are blurred but no less important to the economy; the façades of buildings and store fronts he chooses to depict are lit with an eternal sunset. “I love relatable drama, like the tension of police parked outside Dan Murphy’s,” Chu tells Esquire of his interest in painting mundane settings. “Or the comedy of a desperate bloke awkwardly throwing back wines on a first date. Some scenes are more subtle. A tidy row of rubbish bins with bright lids can sing.”

Chu’s latest painting show in Melbourne’s City Library Gallery, Eat With Our Eyes (running until June 22; free entry) is a reminder of these consequential spaces. And for the purposes of Esquire‘s Five Fits With series, a window into some of his frequented spots around town. Recently, we caught up with the Melbourne-based artist and thinker after his show opening as he took us through five of his favourite fits (the last was what he wore to the opening), while discussing how his style has evolved throughout the years, his work in the arts and sciences, and his favourite spots around town to eat and shop, which he has, of course, painted.

Fit one

Esquire: Firstly, where did you grow up, and where do you currently call home?

Mark Bo Chu: I was born in Melbourne, I lived in New York City for eight years, now I’m back in Melbourne!

What was considered ‘stylish’ or ‘cool’ when you were growing up?

Sneakers. Casio watches. East London Brick Lane vibes in 2007. French club culture with a Brooklyn influence.

When did you first become interested in clothing and style?

The first day of kinder – my parents dressed me in a suit and bow tie!

How, if at all, has your style changed over time?

I used to wear more out-there clothes, but you can’t really rock a hoodie with ‘motherfucker’ written on it to a kinder drop-off.

Fit two

You’re a polymath across the arts and sciences. Tell me about what got you into these different fields.

Art and science both happened by accident.

I started painting because I was raising money for a short film, and one of the collaborative works was a photo of the DOP’s that I painted on at the last minute. Visitors could choose the price and someone offered $1000. The paint was still wet. I thought I had a chance as an artist.

With science, I was enrolled in the wrong department at Columbia, where I did a masters of fiction – Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, not Graduate School of Arts. I got engineering emails and signed up to do this design challenge. Our team won, but I only joined it because no one else there would talk to me. They’d literally close up their shoulders and shun me. At the time I had long hair in a knot and the only guy willing to talk to me had an earring and was into funk. I loved hearing all the computer science jargon that I didn’t understand so I wanted to look more deeply into it. The world was going that way too.

Your visual art depicts quotidian settings. What interests you about a certain place to paint it?

I love relatable drama, like the tension of police parked outside Dan Murphy’s. Or the comedy of a desperate bloke awkwardly throwing back wines on a first date. Some scenes are more subtle. A tidy row of rubbish bins with bright lids can sing.

Fit three

What do you hope viewers see in these familiar streetscapes?

People recognise the spots, but that’s a doorway to something deeper. I like reminding people of things that are consequential, like credit card machines, or electric poles, or parking signs.

Do you have any rituals to get yourself in the mindset to write and paint?

Sometimes I work while I sleep. I’ll lodge an idea into the subconscious as I drift away.

Your latest show Eat With Our Eyes is all about food. Where were some of the places where you painted these dishes?

Footscray Market, Cam’s Kiosk, Mekong Vietnam, France-Soir . . . Melbourne’s food scene thrives from the disparate vibes – and the hard work of the staff! Scenesters and buzz are cool, but regular spots are extremely important. The mediocre and ultra-ordinary are always worth contemplating because they tell us who we are, collectively.

Fit four

Where are your favourite places to shop in Melbourne?

PAM. Opera. Big W. They’re probably my favourite shops to browse, though I try to buy as little as I can. I often pull over when I pass a workwear shop, like RSEA Safety, because their gear is durable and I like hi-vis. When I can, I drift around Chadstone to track what the luxury houses are up to. I like seeing the whole fashion ecology – the same goes for all cultural forms.