Pia Johnson

Pia Johnson is a lecturer within the School of Art. She is currently the Program Manager for the Master of Photography.

Pia Johnson is a photographer and visual artist, whose work is engaged with performance and performativity. Her practice emerged out of a concern with issues of cultural identity and difference, stemming from her mixed Chinese and Italian Australian heritage. She is interested in reading and performing Eurasian ethnicities, intersections with gender, and the practice of photographing live performance.

Pia's work has been exhibited widely in Australia and internationally including the National Gallery of Victoria, Wollongong Art Gallery, Ballarat Art Gallery, Queensland Centre of Photography, Photography Centre of Perth, Gold Coast City Gallery, Pingyao International Photography Festival (China), The Museum of the City of Cuernavaca (Mexico), PhotoAccess, Stockroom Kyneton, Edward Pearce Gallery, Project Basho Gallery (USA), Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Castlemaine Festival, Bundoora Homestead, Blindside, Mailbox Art Space and Manningham Art Gallery amongst others.

Pia has been a finalist in many photography awards, including the National Photographic Portrait Prize, Ravenswood Australian Women's Art Prize, Bowness Photography Prize, Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award, PCP's Iris Award, Maggie Diaz Photography Prize for Women, Martin Kantor Photographic Portrait Prize. She has held artist residencies at the National University of Singapore and Studio Kura in Japan and her work is collected in private and public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, Bendigo Art Gallery, City of Yarra and others. In 2022 Pia is the State Library of Victoria Kerri Hall Fellowship for Performing Arts inaugural recipient. In 2023 Pia was the Artist in Residence at the Immigration Museum, who will present her solo exhibition Re-Orient in 2024.

Working across collaborative and generative cross-disciplinary projects, she has had commissions from 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, Punctum Inc and AsiaTOPA, the Australian National Academy of Music and Fraught Outfit; and she is regularly invited as a guest speaker and artistic advisor for a range of organisations. Pia is well known for her commercial practice in portrait and performance photography, working with major to small-medium and independent arts organisations and creatives in Australia. Her photographs have been published in Rolling Stone, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Age, The Age Life and Style, Good Weekend, The Herald Sun, The Monthly, The Saturday Paper, Artist Profile, Art Collector among others as well as independent and cultural papers and publishing companies such as Currency Press and Black Inc.

Pia holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts and Diploma of Modern Languages (Mandarin) from University of Melbourne and has a Doctorate in Fine Arts from RMIT University, where she is a lecturer and currently the Program Manager of the Master of Photography program. Pia was selected to be part of the government funded Women of Colour Executive Leadership Program in 2024.

In 2023 Pia started her own podcast Out of the Frame: Conversations about Photography, which profiles contemporary photographers and artists speaking about their practice and photographic concerns today.

Pia lives and works on Dja Dja Wurrung Country, with her husband and daughter. She acknowledges and pays respect to the traditional owners of the land - always will be Aboriginal land.

Personal website: www.piajohnson.com

@piajohnsonphotography



Selected Solo Exhibitions

2024 An Uncertain Grasp, Stockroom Kyneton, VIC
2024 Re-Orient, Immigration Museum, VIC
2022 Faint Echoes, Bundoora Homestead, VIC
2021 I said goodbye to each room, as if saying goodbye to you, City of Yarra Lightbox, VIC
2019 Cusp, Stockroom, Kyneton
2018 She that came before me, Manningham Art Gallery, Doncaster
2016 The Widening Gyre, Stockroom, Kyneton
2014 In a dim light…, Edmund Pearce Gallery, Melbourne
2013 Fragile Light, Studio Kura, Itoshima, Japan
2013 Finding Yourself at Home Alone, Stockroom, Kyneton
2012 Who's the Chinese lady that picks you up from school?, Queensland Centre of Photography
2009 threads, Photography, Guildford Lane Gallery, Melbourne
2009 Who's the Chinese lady that picks you up from school?, fortyfive downstairs, Melbourne


Selected Recent Group Exhibitions and Commissions

2023 Peonies, Still Life and A Duck, (in collaboration with Janelle Low and Karima Baadilla), Counihan Gallery, VIC
2022-23 The Sitter: Portraits across the collection, Bendigo Art Gallery, VIC
2022 Forest, CLIMARTE Gallery, VIC
2021-22 10th Asia Pacific Triennial, QAGOMA, QLD
2021 Say it With Flowers, Ballarat International Foto Biennale, VIC
2020 The Family Album, Town Hall Gallery, Hawthorn VIC
2019-20 On the move: the Dion Family, Wollongong Art Gallery, NSW
2019 Her Focus, Footscray Community Arts Centre, VIC
2018 Territories, Pingyao International Photography Festival, China
2018 The Family Mantle (curator and artist), Bundoora Homestead, VIC
2018 All We Can't See, Yellow House Gallery, Sydney, NSW & fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne VIC
2017 The Confessional, Mailbox Art Space, Melbourne VIC
2017 My Mother's Mother, Commissioned visuals for Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, VIC
2017 Chinese Whispers and Other Stories (curator and artist), Blindside Gallery, VIC & Huw Davies Gallery, PhotoAccess, Manuka Arts Centre, ACT
2017 Big Walk to Golden Mountain, Commissioned work Cartography, by Punctum Inc & AsiaTOPA, Art Gallery of Ballarat, VIC
2017 Closing the Distance, Bundoora House, VIC
2016 The Museum of International Connectivity, Dirty Dozen, Melbourne
2015 37° South to 19° North: Australian Photography, The Museum of the City of Cuernavaca, Mexico
2014 Settlings, First Site Gallery, RMIT
2013 Camera Work: Contemporary Portraiture, Black Box Gallery, Portland Oregon USA
2013 Periscope, Commissioned work Hong Bao by Castlemaine State Festival 2013, Castlemaine
2013 蛇 rắn 뱀 Snake Snake Snake, Sydney Chinese New Year Festival, Sydney
2012 Make Yourself At Home, Chinalink Gallery, Sydney
2012 Mixed Media, Ausin Tang Gallery, Prahran
2010 Asia Now, Melbourne Intercultural Fine Art (MiFA), Collins St, Melbourne
2010 Love, Loss and Intimacy, National Gallery of Victoria International


Selected Awards, Grants & Residencies

2025 Bogong Centre of Sound, NSW

2024 Ravenswood Prize, NSW (Finalist)

2023 Artist in Residence, Immigration Musuem, VIC

2023 Fellow, State Library of Victoria Kerri Hall Fellowship for Performing Arts, VIC
2022 Creative Victoria Arts Project funding recipient
2022 Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Award, Manly Art Gallery, NSW (Finalist)
2022 Capturing Culture Photography Award, Victorian Multicultural Commission, VIC (Finalist)
2021 Olive Cotton Award, Tweed Regional Gallery, NSW (Finalist)
2021 National Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, ACT (Finalist)
2021 State Library of Victoria 'Alchemy' grant recipient with Melinda Hetzel & Co (Finalist)
2021 Australia Council for the Arts Australia-Singapore Digital Residency recipient
2020 Regional Arts Victoria Sustaining Creative Workers Grant recipient
2020 Blindside ARI & National Trust Regional Artist Residency, Mooramong, VIC
2019 Ravenswood Women's Art Prize, NSW (Finalist)
2019 Loud and Luminous 'Power', HeadOn Photo Festival, Book, Sydney (Finalist)
2018 IRIS award, Photography Centre of Perth, WA (Finalist)
2018 Artist Residency at National University of Singapore, College of Alice and Peter Tan
2018 Punctum Seedpod What If Residency, Castlemaine VIC
2017 Martin Kantor Portrait Prize, Ballarat International Foto Biennale VIC (Finalist)
2017 & 2015 Maggie Diaz Photography Prize for Women exhibition, Brightspace, VIC (Finalist)
2014 Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award, Gold Coast City Gallery, QLD (Finalist)
2013 Punctum In-Habit International Grant
2013 Studio Kura Artist Residency, Itoshima, Japan
2012 Australian National Academy of Music Artist Residency
2012 Take A Bow performance prize exhibition, BIFB, Ballarat and Melbourne (3x Finalist)
2012 Onward Compe '12 Exhibition, Project Basho Gallery, Philadelphia, USA (Finalist)
2010 Victorian Multicultural Commission for Making it Sacred project
2008 City of Melbourne Young Artist Grant Program

Collections
National Gallery of Victoria // European Centre of Culture Venice, Italy //Bendigo Art Gallery // City of Yarra // Curtin University // National Art School // RMIT University // University of Southern Queensland // Various private collections

Selected Collaborative Projects
2022 Solace, Melinda Hetzel & Co, State Library of Victoria, VIC
2022 Here We Walk, Melinda Hetzel & Co, Hume City Council, VIC
2020-22 In the Making, Rawcus Public Program: Theatreworks, Kingston Arts Centre, Fuse Festival, VIC
2021 Bach Cello Suites with Zoe Knighton, fortyfivedownstairs, VIC
2021 Conservatory, Melinda Hetzel and Co with Niao Niao, Melbourne Fringe, VIC
2019 Rawcus Theatre commission and creative development, The Substation
Ongoing - Spilt Milk: The Darker Side of Motherhood, in collaboration with Melinda Hetzel
2017 My Mother's Mother, Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, VIC
2017 Big Walk to Golden Mountain, Punctum Inc for AsiaTOPA,VIC
2014 Our Place: A collaborative project by the community of Fawkner with artist Clare McCracken
2013 On the Bodily Education of Young Girls, Fraught Outfit production at MTC Neon season, VIC

Selected Commissioning Clients and Publication Outlets:  

The Age, Arts Centre Melbourne, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, Australian Ballet, Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), Back to Back Theatre, Belvoir Theatre, Broadsheet, Chamber Made, Circa, Chunky Move, Currency Press, The Guardian, Herald Sun, Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne Theatre Company, The Melbourne Times, The Monthly, Queensland Theatre Company, Rawcus, Rising Festival, Rolling Stone, State Library of Victoria, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Saturday Paper, TimeOut and many others.