Choy has made important contributions to the progress of Singapore Art Scene as an educator, art curator, art writer and as a creative visionary. Instrumental in the development of museology in Singapore since the 1970s, Choy is renowned for his groundbreaking approach of combining various contemporary Western art styles. Inspired by his predecessors like Paul Klee and Josef Albers, Choy imbues his own artistic expression that bridges instinctual and intellectual responses to colours. His work ruminates on the theories and practices of these colour theorists, who used colours and composition as a springboard for conveying complex ideas, while activating a flurry of emotional reactions.

Having graduated from the Hornsey College of Art in London in 1962, Choy was largely exposed to interdisciplinary modern art movements of his time which advanced his artistic development. He absorbed the revolutionary ideas and techniques that defined European art in the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly relating to the manipulation of light and colours like Turner, Monet, Matisse, Cezanne and Mondrian.

In 1973, Choy was awarded a 6-month UNESCO Fellowship where he was mentored by the Bauhaus artist and educator Gy철rgy Kepes. He experimented with environmental design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS). During their exchanges, Choy excelled in assimilating the concepts of transient light and color interaction into his understanding of abstract expressionism and ventured deeper into the modern art landscape of the US. This marked a pivotal point in his career, broadening his horizons as a cutting-edge painter and furthered his experiments with form, space and seeing colours beyond the visual, as a cognitive medium. Choy's dedication and proliferation of artistic ideas led him to helm the Head of the Exhibition & Design at National Museum Art Gallery (NMAG) in 1975, and was subsequently promoted to Curator of Art from 1978 to 1985. During this time, Choy promoted museum cultures and practices in Singapore, and implemented ingenious museum designs he learnt while residing overseas.

Choy played an active part in forming a community of artists to search for the identity of Singaporean Art and in pushing boundaries of traditional art movements. Like fellow second-generation artists Teo Eng Seng (1938- and Anthony Poon (1945-2006), Choy introduced and brought the focus of abstract art to avid audiences. He gained recognition for the non-conventional methods of conveying unrestrained artistic expressions that redefined modernity of art, and laid the groundwork for nurturing new generations of artists in Singapore.