Anthonie Chong’s early figurative works translate complex and powerful emotions. Painted in the artist’s iconic style of this period, the artwork illustrates a man in a confident pose, with arms placed on his waist, situated in a darkened room. A tall pole structure towers over the figure, constructed from vertical and horizontal outlines, dividing the picture plane to achieve a perfect balance. Anthonie Chong graduated in Graphic Design from the Perak Institute of Art in 1991. He won the Philip Morris Asean Art Award, Malaysia in 1998. In 2000, he switched to caricature-like iconography fusing eastern surrealism with digital technology, namely his e-monk creations which morphed into @-monk in 2010, which was represented in three series — Community, Gaia and Mechanism. He had his first solo at the X Pub and Gallery in Penang in 1974. He had worked as an art teacher (Art Design, Kuala Lumpur), graphic designer, illustrator and lecturer at Art Direction (1992-1995), before helping out a relative in his business.