Ishak, for instance, can be found reproduced on Singapore's currency notes. Chua would show his work in solo and group shows from the 1980s onwards, also holding joint exhibitions in 1980 and 1990 with oil painter Lee Boon Ngan, his wife. In 1996, with the inauguration of the Singapore Art Museum, Chua's work would also be historicised in Channels & Confluences: A History of Singapore Art, a publication produced alongside the museum's opening. In 2007, the exhibition From Words to Pictures: Art During the Emergency would be held at the Singapore Art Museum, a show examining social realist artworks in Singapore through the historical frame of the Malayan Emergency, including works by Chua. In 2013, the former members of EAS held the exhibition 137km North of the Equator: A Story of the Equator Art Society and Realist Artists in Singapore at the Artcommune Gallery. With the opening of the National Gallery Singapore in 2015, Chua's work would be featured in and inspire the title of the inaugural exhibition at the Singapore Gallery, Siapa Nama Kamu? Art in Singapore since the 19th Century, its name taking from a detail in his oil painting, National Language Class (1959). In 2015, Chua was awarded the Cultural Medallion for his contributions to the visual arts in Singapore. Art Chua's oil painting, National Language Class (1959), has been interpreted as reflecting an emerging nationalist Malayan identity, with Malay language uniting the various ethnic communities. The painting depicts Singaporeans of different ethnicities attempting to free themselves from English, the language of their colonial masters, by learning Malay, the national language of Singapore, Malaya, and the Malay World. They are seated at a round table, a symbol of equality, with the Malay teacher posing two simple questions to his students: Siapa nama kamu? Di-mana awak tinggal? (What is your name? Where do you live?). These seemingly simple questions are loaded with political symbolism, illustrating the dynamics of the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the Malay language was a social bridge and major medium of communication in Singapore. Then, left-wing Chinese school students demanded that the study of Malay replace English in their Chinese medium schools in preparation for merger with Malaya. References 1931 births Living people People from Shantou Singaporean people of Teochew descent Chinese emigrants to Singapore Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts alumni Singaporean painters Singaporean artists