STPI is proud to present a strong line up of collaborative works with renowned Singaporean artists, starting with Han Sai Por’s
Moving Forest at STPI Gallery and showcase of works by the late Chua Ek Kay, Goh Beng Kwan and Tan Swie Hian at ArtStage Singapore.
Han Sai Por’s
Moving Forest is a new body of 50 breakthrough works produced in collaboration with STPI’s print and workshop team. Following Han’s recent show
Black Forest at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Gallery,
Moving Forest references a renewal of seasons, such as Spring embodied here in minimalist, landscape wall pieces, three-dimensional fruit objects and forest motifs bursting with colour and movement.
At 70, Han is a formidable artistic figure in Singapore and continues to invigorate her creative approach with new material possibilities at STPI. She exchanges hard stone and marble medium for softer and flexible paper pulp. Integrating her sculptural sensibility, Han stretches paper’s potential to possess volume and textures as seen in the series
Tropical Fruits and stunning, cast paper pieces
Dawn and
Topography Landscape.
Pushing her artistic trajectory to new heights are interpretations of forest drawings in wood-cut prints
Rooted and
Nestles. Materialised in intricate carvings on woodblock and printed grain pattern, these robust, sinuous tree trucks and branches make powerful statements on the forces of nature.
Modern sculpture pioneers Constantin Brancusi (Romania) and Henry Moore (United Kingdom) known for extreme simplification of forms are early influences for Han, who continues to push herself with physically challenging materials such as stone and marble. She is still going strong in a practice spanning 50 years shaped her sensitivity to nature and an aesthetic language of understated, geometric and organic forms.
Awarded the Cultural Medallion in 1995, Han attended art courses at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in mid 1970s, furthering her studies at East Ham College of Art and the Wolverhampton College of Art in the UK. Her sculptures are recognisable features in Singapore such as at the Istana, Changi airport, the Esplanade, and featured prominently abroad in Singapore offices at the World United Nation, New York and Embassy in Washington D.C.
Tropical Fruit Installation © Han Sai Por/STPI 2013Press release courtesy STPI - Creative Workshop & Gallery.