Born in Klang, Malaysia, in 1937, Tew Nai Tong studied at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore from 1957-58, and enrolled at the Ecole National Superieure Des Beaux-arts, Paris in 1966. After his return in 1969, he joined the Malaysian Institute of Art as a lecturer. He also studied the primitive sculptures of Southeast Asia which influenced his work in terms of the figurative models employed.
