the faces of guanxiu's sixteen friends, the luohans of his feverish dreams 
20 Jun - 27 Jul 2019

​Jason Phu
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Guanxiu drank some bad wine one night. The wine had been left out in the sun for several days and had turned a sour brown and solidified into a thick murky vinegar. He fell into a deep feverish dream shortly after. In his dream he was sitting on a smooth flat stone in a pleasant clearing with a little pond. He was desperately thirsty. A luohan appeared with a vessel in hand, dipped it into the pond and offered it to him. He greedily drunk the cool liquid down, but it only made him more thirsty. One by one the other 16 luohans came through, each with a different vessel, each offering him a drink, each sip making him even more mad with thirst. After they had all passed through Guanxiu awoke, fumbled around, found the wine bottle, had another drink and fell back asleep.

Jason Phu (b.1989, Sydney, Australia; lives and works in Sydney) studied at COFA, Sydney graduating with honours in 2011 and also studied at NSCAD, Nova Scotia.Jason’s multi-disciplinary practice brings together a wide range of, sometimes contradictory, references from traditional ink paintings and calligraphy to mass-produced objects, everyday vernacular to official records, personal narratives to historical events. Working across drawing, installation, painting and performance, the artist frequently uses humour as a device to explore experiences of cultural dislocation. Last year (2018) he  showed in the Dobell Drawing Biennale at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, The Burrangong Affray at the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art and Primavera 2018 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.

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AGNSW: SulmanPrize 2019 finalist Jason Phu
https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/sulman/2019/30063/
AGNSW: SulmanPrize 2015 winner Jason Phu
https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/sulman/2015/29703/
AGNSW: Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship 2016 finalist
https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/brett-whiteley-travelling-art-scholarship-2016/finalists/
MCA: The artist, the historian and the case of the Chinese bushranger
https://www.mca.com.au/stories-and-ideas/artist-historian-and-case-chinese-bushranger/
SMH: SulmanPrize win takes Jason Phu out of the kitchen and into the studio
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/sulman-prize-win-takes-jason-phu-outof-
the-kitchen-and-into-the-studio-20150717-gieph4.html
Broadsheet:Who is Jason Phu?
https://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbourne/art-and-design/article/who-jason-phu