Han Hsiang-ning


Han Hsiang-ning is a Taiwanese-American artist. He emigrated to New York from Taiwan in 1967. He joined the O.K. Harris Works of Art from 1971 until 1984. Han has participated in many prominent museum exhibitions. He often uses spray painting and paints photo-realistic street scenes.

Early career in Taiwan

In 1953, he first started oil painting while attending Junior High of National Normal University. He graduated from the Department of Fine Arts of the National Taiwan Normal University in 1960; his graduation Exhibition featured surrealistic oil paintings.
In 1961, he joined the "Fifth Moon Group". He began abstract form oil painting, such as "Worship", "Affair", and his works first appeared in the magazine Pen Review. In 1961 he was selected to represent Taiwan for the exhibition at VI Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil, and was admitted to the 2nd Biennale de Paris. In 1962, Han was visited by New York gallery owner Poindexter. Mrs. Poindexter became the first important New York art dealer collecting Han's works. The following year he had his first exhibitions in Australia and the United States. Exhibitions in Africa followed in 1964.
His first trip outside China or Taiwan came in 1964, when he attended the 4th International Biennial Exhibition of Prints in Tokyo, Japan with Shichi Lee representing Taiwan. His first solo exhibition came the following year, at the National Taiwan Arts Center in Taipei. In 1966 Tehjin Shi introduced Pop art to Taiwan, and influenced Han. "Paintings by the contemporary artist Han" was published by the National Taiwan Arts Center.

United States

In 1967, he emigrated to New York City. He moved to a loft in New York Downtown on Broome Street in 1968. In 1970 Ivan Karp arranged Han's one-man exhibition at French & Company, New York. Whitney Museum curator Marcia Tucker arranged for Han to join the "Invisible Image Exhibition" at School of Visual Arts, New York. He completed a series of "Subtle New York Cityscape" works in 1971, such as "Brooklyn Bridge", and held a one-man exhibition at O.K. Harris Gallery, New York.
He made his first trip to Europe and held one-man exhibition in Germany at Galerie Thelan, Cologne. In 1973 he completed his "Views of Washington D.C." series and held a one-man exhibition at Gallery Henry, Washington D.C. Another one-man exhibition at O.K. Harris Gallery, New York, followed in 1974. In 1977 he took a trip to London and Paris for pictures of city scenes, and in 1978 visited Spain, Portugal, France and England.
In 1979 he held a one-man exhibition at Dobrick Gallery, then undertook his first round the world trip, returning to Taiwan for the first time in 12 years. In 1980 he returned to Taipei again and held an exhibition at Printmakers Art Gallery, including two works of Taipei street scenes. "Paintings by H.N. Han" was published by Artist Magazine in Taipei in 1980.
In 1981 his work featured New York people such as "Music of Washington Square", and the works were exhibited at O.K. Harris Gallery in 1982. In 1983 he set up a studio in a country house at Greenwood Lake, N.Y. In 1984 he travelled to Paris, and in 1985 he worked in his Soho and Greenwood Lake studios.

China

In 1986 he was invited by Lee Shichi, director of Asia World Gallery in Taipei, for a one-man exhibition of recent works on people. He returned to China, and visited the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and re-visited Chungchin. In 1987 he started a series of work on the subject of China such as "Chungchin People", "Beijing Crowds" and "Foreigners in Beijing". He held his first group exhibition in Shanghai, China, "Artists from Shanghai and Taiwan", and visited Souzhou, Woxi, Honzhou and the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts. In 1989 he first visited Mount Huang, mostly the area of Beihai and Xihai, taking scenes in photos and video.
In 1989 he went to Shanghai on May 4 and observed the Students' Democratic Movement. He returned to New York and painted the "Tiananmem Square" series. In 1990 he exhibited the "Tiananmen Square" and "Mount Huang" series in New York and Taipei. In 1997 he re-visited Mount Huang and continued painting on the subject of Mount Huang.
In 2007 he expanded his studio home in Dali, Yunnan, to become a gallery space.

Stylistic changes

He began with abstract form oil painting, and in 1963 he began working with roller and stencils on rice paper, still abstract, emphasizing form and space structure. He was influenced by pop art from 1966.
In 1969 he began spray painting works using acrylic paint on canvas, created the "Invisible Image" series. In 1971, in the process of spray gun painting, found how to create different combinations of sprayed color dots, a form of pointillism. Based on Seurat's works, a series of "After Seurat" works were painted. In 1971 he continued the spray gun technique, but began using New York city-scenes as a subject and his camera as sketching tool. In 1972 he launched studies on industrial scenes with vivid images.
In 1974 he completed a series of "Soho District" works such as "Soho West Broadway" by using telephoto lenses taking pictures of New York Soho building facades, then in 1975 he painted bird's-eye view street scenes of New York City. In 1977 he completed "Lunch Time", featuring people as a subject for the first time, using acrylic spray on canvas.
He completed his first self-portrait in 1981. In 1983 he began using brushes to paint watercolor and ink on paper. In 1985, he continued using two different techniques, his subjects being street crowds and bird's eye views of intersections of New York streets. In 1986 he continued to paint subjects of New York street crowds using acrylic spray on giant canvasses. In 1989 he began a series of paintings of "Mount Huang", employing a similar technique to his ink on paper for the New York street crowds.
In 1998 he began making rubbing prints of New York City street textures of manholes and graffiti, doing the same in Taipei the next year.

Teaching

In 1976, he started instructing an apprenticeship program at the Graduate School of New York University. Han served as a visiting artist for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1979.
In 1988 he taught at St. Thomas Aquinas College as a visiting professor.

Personal life

Han was born in 1939 in Chongqing, China; Han's family originally came from Xiangtan, Hunan. In 1942 he 1942 moved to Baogi, Shangshi with parents, and in 1946 they returned to Xiangtan. In 1948 he moved to Quinmin, Yuennan with his mother, then in 1951 he went to Taiwan via Hong Kong, Macao and joined his father.
In 1964 his father died and he met Tsaishuan Chung. In 1968 Chung came to the United States, and married Han. They divorced in 1977.
In 1979 he met Alice Yu at Taipei Printmaker's Art Gallery, and then she visited New York. They married in 1980, and their daughter Eve was born later that year. His second daughter Jacqueline was born in 1981. In 1999 he separated from Yu.
In 2000 he settled in Old Town Dali City, Yunnan, China, and in 2006 acquired land by Dali Lake and began building a home and studio. In 2008 he turned 70 and celebrated by riding a motorcycle across the town of Dali. He married Yang Lu that same year.

Solo exhibitions

His works have been exhibited at the Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, Musee d'Arte Moderne, Paris, Museum of Recklinghausen, Germany, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, the 1996 Taipei Biennial organized by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan, The Brooklyn Museum, NY, The Art Institute of Chicago, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum, D.C.