Births on July 19

Han Sai Por, Singaporean sculptor and academic

Han Sai Por (simplified Chinese: 韩少芙; traditional Chinese: 韓少芙; pinyin: Hán Shào Fú; born 19 July 1943) is a Singaporean sculptor. A graduate of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), East Ham College of Art, Wolverhampton College of Art (now the School of Art and Design of the University of Wolverhampton) and Lincoln University, New Zealand, she worked as a teacher and later as a part-time lecturer at NAFA, the LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts, and the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, before becoming a full-time artist in 1997.

Han has participated in exhibitions locally and abroad, including events in China, Denmark, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand and South Korea. Her first solo exhibition, entitled Four Dimensions, was held at the National Museum Art Gallery in 1993. Her sculptures can be found around the world, in Osaka and Shōdoshima, Kagawa Prefecture, in Japan; Kuala Lumpur and Sarawak in Malaysia; and Washington, D.C. In Singapore, sculptures commissioned from her can be seen at Capital Tower, the Defence Science Organisation National Laboratories, the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, the National Museum of Singapore, Revenue House, Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3, Suntec City Mall, and Woodlands Regional Library. In 2001, Han was the founding President of the Sculpture Society (Singapore) and remains its Honorary President. She was the first artist in residence at the Society's Sculpture Pavilion at Fort Canning Park in 2009, where she worked on sculptures made from the trunks of tembusu trees.

Han is probably best known for her stone sculptures with organic forms, examples of which include Growth (1985), Spirit of Nature (1988), Object C (1992) and Seeds (2006). The last work, presently located in the grounds of the National Museum, consists of two large kernels carved from sandstone excavated from Fort Canning Hill during the Museum's redevelopment. However, her oeuvre is broad, and includes Four Dimensions (1993), a collection of geometrical structures; and 20 Tonnes (2002), also installed at the Museum, which consists of a row of six ridged monolithic blocks with a smaller block at either end, all hewn from a single granite rock.

For her contributions to art, Han was conferred the Cultural Medallion for Art in 1995. She was also 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, and the Outstanding City Sculpture Award in China the following year.