Han Dai-Yu has always sought this kind of ready intensity in his art.  It is no wonder he would wind up a figural artist, especially a veristic one, working in the western tradition (in ways subtly influrenced by his Chinese and Taiwanese hetitages).  For all his grasp of classic western art, for all his command of painting and drawing media,, and for all the elegance of his line and finesse with the quality of surface.  Han is no classicist.  He bends reality to bring a sense of presence and even passion forward.  If realism is one arrow in Han's quiver, surrealism is another.