The artist, born 1980, found his passion and strength in fine art from when he begun a one year drawing class in 2000. He discovered a new world of expression from charcoal drawing to finger dabbing, black and white sketching to the theory of colours, and capturing still life to live model drawing, all, then triggered his curiosity. From after that phase of study, he extended his found passion into a 3 year practice from 2001 independently under Ernest Chan, a Singaporean The President’s Young Talents Award recipient whom have achieved recognition in arts communities both locally and in overseas countries. The apprentice with Chan have inspired him and hence in time supplied him with a style of paint – the composition, subject, approach and faint-intense hues.
Concurrently, he widened his training in the creative field specializing in graphic design during his formal education in LASALLE College of the Arts and spent several years engaged with local art galleries and artists such as Noni Kaur and Khiew Huey Chian in producing exhibitions catalogues, portraiture photography and book designs.
His talent was uncovered and was offered his first group exhibition at the Art Seasons Gallery entitled Big Small Show in 2003. Opportunities to showcase his art works subsequently followed involving him in over fifteen shows in less than four years. Among the art showcases are several exhibitions at Art Seasons (Singapore) namely “Fresh!”, “Erotica”, “New Finds”, “Solitary Desire”, “M9 Artist in Styles” and “Made in Singapore”, “Milestone” at Vanessa Art House in Jakarta, Indonesia, “1X1X1” at Fost Gallery, Linda Gallery’s “Deweleven” and his recent “Your Private Little Movie” at the Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, in Singapore.
Steve Chua, developing his paints distinctiveness from the style he adapted initially from the notable fine artist, assimilating vivid elements from his parallel aptitude in graphic design, is now one name to look out for. The uniqueness of the art works gained the interest of collectors especially regional young executive and professionals as well as buyers from Australia, Switzerland and the UK.
By taking the human body as the subject matter, Chua is constantly constructing his art with the philosophy to question and explore the notion of desire and identity and to deal with the issue of society associating with consumerism and the effects of that on an individual’s envious mind. Today Steve is exclusively engaged with art-management with the vision to bring his ideas to more people and elevating his art to the next level.
