In Chen's exhibition held in May 1956, Sullivan noted his fascination for "man-made things and clutter". The artist loved to experiment with the interplay of light and forms in chaotic subjects, like a junkyard. His unique style which showed "interest in angles but not Cubist; strays not far from reality and is obsessed with shapes, and yet not an abstract painter". Chen also did not take to modern western art philosophies of that by western counterparts of his time like Picasso and Salvador Dalí.