Huang Poren (; born 1970), a Taiwanese sculptor, was born in Taichung, Taiwan. His ancestral homeland is Fujian, China. His grandfather and parents engaged in wood carving business. In his youth, he majored in sculpture at Fu-Hsin Trade & Art School. In 2001, Huang Poren had joined Graz International Sculpture Exhibition in Austria. He has also participated in several prominent art fairs in both Taiwan and overseas. His well-known pieces include aboriginal-figures and personified dogs. The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art has already collected two of his works. His work "The Archer" has been published in textbooks for senior high school students in Taiwan.
Huang Poren's works became popular globally and continued to manifest positive attitudes which influence and touch a lot of people. Every sculptures are highly meaningful and have long-term mission, which is for the betterment of people in this 21st century, especially in the mind!
Early life and family
Huang Poren was born into a family of woodcarvers in Dajia District, Taichung. Both his grandfather and father were engaged in the woodcarving industry. During its heyday between 1960 and 1980, more than 100 woodcarvers were ceaselessly working at the Huang's woodcarving factory. They even had to sleep at the factory's dormitory at night. The scale of the woodcarving factory was very big; the products were exported to various countries. The land where the factory situated is very big and stored a lot of woodcrafts. A single piece of unprocessed high-end wood costs more than US$30,000 at that time. Since security systems were not installed at that time, Formosan Mountain Dogs were used to guard the factory and home in order to prevent the woods from getting stolen. The Huang's Formosan Mountain Dogs have existed continuously for generations; hence Huang Poren grew up in an environment surrounded by sculptures and Formosan Mountain Dogs.
Huang Poren has an innate sense of delicacy and fancifulness. In today's society, he has his own distinct thoughts toward human nature and generational changes. He wants to transmit his thoughts through new art creations instead of duplicating craft (such as 80,000 pieces of the same Guan Gong sculptures). However, his father threatened to "renounce" him if he became an artist. He wanted him to continue producing wood sculptures, so that he could at least have a steady income. His father had no choice but to use the threatening tone because there were quite a few woodcarvers who had left the woodcarving factory in the hope of becoming romantic artists. However, they ended up suffering from the strain of poverty. Moreover, Huang Poren is the only male child in the family, as he has several sisters, but his father already advanced in age. Thus, his father was very worried that his son would be starved to death if pursued artistic works, he had no choice but to threaten him.
Since graduating from the sculpting group of Fu-Hsin Trade & Arts School in 1989, he did not run away from home like other romantic artists. Instead, he designated a small area at the factory for himself. He used wood, metal, rocks, and other cheap sculpting materials, and he strived to participate in sculpting competitions in various places. Throughout the years, he has received numerous awards. He has also attracted numerous visits from the media. His father then became aware of the matter, but he could not help in worrying his son.
Through The Dog's Notes, Huang Poren expresses that he will never abandon either his family or his creative artworks.
Style
Huang Poren's sculpture works concern Taiwanese aboriginals and Formosan Mountain Dog. Because of his great admiration for aboriginals' innocence and perseverance, the sculptor's early works, created from iron or wood, express their unique culture and difficult life vividly. With regard to The Dog's Notes series, those Formosan Mountain dogs raised by Huang Poren's family are a rich source of inspiration for him. It is taken for granted that dogs are the most trustworthy animal to human beings; however, dogs can also be a symbol of the dark sides to human character, as being snobbish or fawning. Some of Huang Poren's bronze dogs even resemble the appearance of a man.