Exhibition Opening: Dreams of a Cicada, Waking in the Heat

Part play, part storytelling, part dreamscape, “Dreams of a cicada, waking in the summer heat” provides a loose retelling of Shakespeares Midsummers Nights Dream, a tale of the irrationality of love and desire, the fine balance of the order and chaos of nature, and the blurring of dreams and reality. The work is also heavily influenced by The Story of Stone (Dream of the Red Chamber 1763) and other folk tales

ANCA x Canberra Art Biennial - 6th Edition

Jason’s multi-disciplinary practice across installation, painting and performance brings together a wide range of sometimes contradictory references, from traditional ink paintings to street art, everyday vernacular to official records, personal narratives to historical events.

Jason recently had a solo presentation at HOTA (Home of the Arts), presented a robotic toy choir at Dark Mofo 2023 and The National 4: Australian Art Now at Carriageworks, he was commissioned to present at The 2022 Macfarlane Commissions at ACCA (Australian Centre for Contemporary Art) in 2022, Parade for the moon at RISING: Melbourne 2022, and was awarded the Mordant Family Moving Image Commission at ACMI (Australian Centre for Moving Image). He was a finalist in the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes in 2023 at the Art Gallery of NSW, Jason has previously shown at MCA, AGNSW and 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. He is represented by Chalk Horse gallery, Sydney and STATION gallery, Melbourne.

1. Jason Phu, you think you are staring at us at a beautiful scene worthy of an iphone photoworthy of the valencia filteron an instagram post but we are staring at you because you forgot your pants, 2026

2. Jason Phu, dreams of cicadas walking in the heat (1 of 3), 2026

3. Jason Phu, dreams of cicadas walking in the heat (2 of 3), 2026

4. Jason Phu, dreams of cicadas walking in the heat, (3 of 3) 2026

5. Jason Phu in studio, courtesy of the artist, Photo Credit: Leanna Maione