Huang was one of the earliest contemporary Chinese artists to consider art as strategy. As a self-taught student, some of his earliest artistic inspirations came from Joseph Beuys, John Cage, and Marcel Duchamp. He later graduated from art school in Hangzhou in 1982, and formed Xiamen Dada (廈門達達) in 1986. Huang's oeuvre can be characterized by four periods: anti-artistic affectation (fan jiaoshi zhuyi), anti-self-expression (fan ziwo biaoxian he xingshi zhuyi), anti-art (fan yishu), and anti-history (fanyishushi). At the age of 35 in 1989, Huang traveled to Paris to partake in the seminal exhibition "Magiciens de la terre". He later immigrated to France and lived there ever since. As many of his pieces are very large, they are not suitable for auction.