Han Sai Por was educated at Yock Eng High School (now Yuying Secondary School).
College/University
Gallery of Sai Por Han
80 Bencoolen St, Singapore 189655
Han Sai Por attended part-time courses at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) from 1975 to 1977.
Gallery of Sai Por Han
High St S, East Ham, London E6 6ER, UK
Han Sai Por studied fine art at the East Ham College of Art (now Newham College of Further Education) in 1979-1980.
Gallery of Sai Por Han
Wulfruna St, Wolverhampton WV1 1LY, UK
Han Sai Por studied at the Wolverhampton College of Art (now the University of Wolverhampton) during 1980-1983, receiving a Bachelor of Arts (with honors) in Fine Art.
Gallery of Sai Por Han
Ellesmere Jct Rd, Lincoln 7647, New Zealand
Han Sai Por pursued further studies in landscape architecture at Lincoln University in Lincoln, New Zealand.
Han Sai Por studied at the Wolverhampton College of Art (now the University of Wolverhampton) during 1980-1983, receiving a Bachelor of Arts (with honors) in Fine Art.
Han Sai Por is a Singaporean sculptor. She is well-known for her sculptures carved in stone, bringing to life figurative forms and organic shapes to hefty granite blocks. She has exhibited her works internationally in China, South Korea, North America and Europe. Some of her works are on permanent displays in Singapore’s hotels, libraries and Mass Rapid Transit stations as well as in parks of Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Background
Han Sai Por was born on July 19, 1943 in Singapore. She was one of six children of a poor couple, and her family were squatters living in Changi in a house made of cardboard boxes and coconut leaves.
Nonetheless, Han had a happy childhood, and went to a nearby beach to make figurine animals out of sand. This experience helped her to appreciate nature and instilled in her a sense of adventure and exploration. Han was first introduced to the enthralling work of Michelangelo’s sculptures when she was 10, images of which were from a book Han’s mother had bought for her.
Education
Han Sai Por was educated at Yock Eng High School (now Yuying Secondary School) and subsequently at the Singapore Teachers' Training College between 1965 and 1968. She then attended part-time courses at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) from 1975 to 1977.
Having saved some money, she went to the United Kingdom where she studied fine art at the East Ham College of Art (now Newham College of Further Education) in 1979-1980 and the Wolverhampton College of Art (now the University of Wolverhampton) during 1980-1983, receiving a Bachelor of Arts (with honors) in Fine Art from the latter.
Subsequently, she pursued further studies in landscape architecture at Lincoln University in Lincoln, New Zealand.
Han Sai Por returned to Singapore in 1983 and was one of the two pioneer teachers appointed to the new Arts Elective Programme at the Nanyang Girls' High School from 1984-1986. In 1987, to support her personal artistic endeavours, Han also began to teach part-time at NAFA, the LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts (both 1987-1993) and the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University (1994-1996).
Han has participated in exhibitions locally and abroad, including events in China, Denmark, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand and South Korea.
Over 24 hours between New Year's Eve 1989 and New Year's Day 1990, she took part in The Time Show organized by The Artists Village, which has been described as "definitely a high point in the history of art in Singapore when an exceptionally wide spectrum of artists expressing in an equally wide range of mediums participated in a single art event".
Han's first solo exhibition was Four Dimensions at the National Museum Art Gallery from 18 to 28 February 1993. Other solo shows she has given in Singapore are Rainforest (Plastique Kinetic Worms, 1999) and 20 Tonnes - Physical Consequences (Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts ARTrium, 2002).
Han became a full-time sculptor in 1997. She has received critical attention for the rigour of her practice over the years. Nature has been her principal source, providing motifs and metaphors of forests, plants, seeds and fruit that signify the vitality of life. Her sculptures are characterised by organic forms and understated elegance, often demonstrating a strong sense of symmetry and balance as well as intuitive understanding of material. While stone has been the material she is most associated with, Han has worked successfully with glass, metals, paper and ice, and her practice also extends to paintings and drawings.
Additionally, her works may be found in numerous public and corporate spaces in Singapore and overseas including Changi Airport and Esplanade: Theatres on the Bay in Singapore; Suzhou Park, China; Portland Sculpture Park, UK; Shodshima Centre Park, Japan; at the Kuching Waterfront development in Sarawak and Kuala Lumpur Lake Gardens. She has exhibited on distinguished platforms including the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan and the National Museum of Modern Art, Korea.
Besides, Han was the founding president of the Singapore Sculpture Society in 2001. In May 2009, she was the first artist-in-residence at the Society's Sculpture Pavilion at Fort Canning Park where she worked on sculptures made from the trunks of tembusu trees.
Currently, Han serves as the Sculpture Society’s honorary president and remains devoted to her art-making.
Han Sai Por has come a long way since her first sculpture of a bust of herself. Since then, she has exhibited locally and internationally. Her commissioned works can be found, for instance, in the Esplanade, Suntec City, Capital Towers in the Central Business District as well as Woodlands Regional Library.
Her work is also on permanent display internationally in places such as the Portland Sculpture Park in the United Kingdom, the Kuala Lumpur Lake Garden in Malaysia and Uchinomi-cho Town Hall Garden in Japan.
Moreover, in 1988, Han won the Best Entry Award from the Singapore National Theatre Trust for her participation in a show entitled Basics at the National Museum Art Gallery. She was awarded a scholarship for the Portland Sculpture Park on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England, by the Arts Council of Great Britain and the National Arts Council (NAC) in 1990.
In 1993 she received sponsorship from the Singapore International Foundation to attend the International Painting and Sculpture Symposium in Gulbarga (Kalburgi) in Karnataka, India, and served on the NAC's Arts Resource Panel between 1993 and 1994.
In 1995, Han was conferred the Cultural Medallion for Art by the Minister for Communications, Information and the Arts.
She was also a finalist for the Women Inspire Awards 2002, and the winner of the sculpture and painting section at the 11th Triennale - India organized by the Lalit Kala Akademi (National Academy of Art of India) in 2005 for her Bud, Leaf and Seed Series. The following year, she won the Outstanding City Sculpture Award in China.
In September 2008, Han was one of seven Cultural Medallion winners to receive an $80,000 grant from the NAC's CM Grant program to fund a project involving site-specific installations based on Singapore flora.
Han Sai Por was also 6the recipient of NAFA Distinguished Alumni Award in 2011 and became an award winner of "The Leonardo Award for Sculpture" Chianciano Art Biennale 2015, Italy.
Life, for Han, is a matter of working hard, living simply, and doing what she chooses to do as a sculptor.
Quotations:
"A sculpture is not a cold piece of stone, clay or metal. It has a life of its own. It’s the sculptor’s way of expression and it’s his companion."
"All my discoveries will go into my art."
"When I am working in stone, the immediate contact is physical, the force of hammering, chiselling and drilling hard stone creates heat and energy. The reaction of the particles causes sparks and waves of sound. The appearance of the stone is the result, the consequence of physical reaction. Understanding the character of nature through the physical contact has become part of my sculpture. "
Membership
Han was a member of the Fourth Singapore Note and Coin Advisory Committee between 1 July 2008 and 30 June 2011, where her duties included advising the Monetary Authority of Singapore on designs for new currency.
Fourth Singapore Note and Coin Advisory Committee
July 1, 2008 - June 30, 2011
Connections
Han used to live in a rented two-storey house within the compounds of Seletar Airbase, before moving to Wessex Estate in 2006.
