Huang, Po-Hsun
Born in 1981, Taiwanese contemporary artist Huang, Po-Hsun constructs vast, mysterious, and silent universes guided by themes of abundance and freedom. Drawing from personal experiences and memories, his art explores the unknown, blending surrealism with intricate detail and atmospheric depth.
Huang’s work spans painting, three-dimensional installations, animation, woodcuts, and digital prints, demonstrating his commitment to expanding artistic possibilities through diverse materials. His signature motifs, swallows and fish, are symbolized contrasting perceptions of freedom. Swallows, as migratory birds, traverse great distances yet remain tied to familiar places by instinct, while fish, confined to a tank, seem to forget their boundaries due to their short memory span. Huang invites viewers to reflect on the nature of freedom and constraint through his works.
His art has been widely exhibited in private galleries and national museums, earning prestigious awards and being collected by national art institutions, art foundations, and corporate collectors. He has also collaborated with major international brands, further extending his artistic influence.
Huang’s evocative works continue to attract the attention of galleries and collectors across Asia, Europe, and the United States. With established partnerships in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Belgium, and beyond, he remains a significant figure in contemporary art, challenging boundaries and reimagining the possibilities of creative expression.
I had two main ways to express my idea. One was using the unique texture of acrylic painting to distinguish itself from other painting materials and to find other possible ways of painting of acrylic. The other one was considering the changes of figures when I stepped into a virtual space from the real visual world. The former one means the research of materials and the later one means reconstructions of daily images. I have been using acrylic as painting material for a long time. I can do my best to paint acrylic as a shiny membrane when it was dried. I have intentionally painted the elements of my paintings shiny, flat, and even with the reflection of complementary colors to show the differences from oil painting. That is why you can always find smooth and gradient textures like you saw in 3D digital paintings in my pieces. I have controlled the shade and the brightness of every lamination to create fantastic sheen.
I focused on geometric or an abstract way to paint and intended to bring the viewers the “déjàvu”. These elements came from the reconstructions of my daily life, my imagination, animals and plants around me, and my sense and experiences. The composition and combination are beyond comprehension however designed by reason. Every time I start to paint, those elements bring me through time and space to a mysterious and poetic realm where is fantastic, gorgeous, and like heaven. It is like building an enormous and flourishing wonderland beneath an addicting night sky. Elements in this wonderland overlapped, rebuild, dissolved and reconstructed. The most glorious bloom was flying as a machine or more like a kind of plankton. You cannot trace them. They are poetic, but lunatic.
