Chua Say Hua is an award-winning artist who incorporates both Chinese and Western aesthetics in his style. He received his Diploma in Fine Art at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1992, his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1994, and then a Master’s of Arts in Fine Art from Goldsmith College in 1997. His art education from these institutions encouraged him to adopt different practices and push the boundaries of conventional art styles. Today, he primarily works with Chinese ink to produce extraordinary paintings that draw influences from Willem de Kooning, Toko Shinoda and Chua Ek Kay.

Temptation is one of Chua’s early works painted before the 2000s. In this composition, he illustrates three nude figures occupying varying planes painted with different colours. These figures, and the solid shapes behind them, collide and overlap one another, exuding a pulsing energy that exudes from the canvas. The models in the artwork also demonstrate his interest in the human form. Like many of his role models, such as de Kooning, Chua was not attempting to depict a human form realistically. Instead, by elongating the limbs and distorting the torso of these figures, Chua evokes the effect of bodies as fluid.