Dr. Pia Johnson

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, 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 recipient.

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. 

Personal website: www.piajohnson.com

@piajohnsonphotography

• 2021 PhD (Fine Art), RMIT University
• 2005 Bachelor of Creative Arts (Visual Arts)/Dipl. of Modern Languages (Mandarin), University of Melbourne

Selected Solo Exhibitions

• 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

• 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

• 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 // 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 Clients

Arena Theatre Company // Arts Centre Melbourne // Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) // Belvoir Theatre // Chamber Made // Darebin City Council // Circa // Chunky Move // Essential Theatre // Flinders Quartet // Fraught Outfit // Haileybury // Malthouse Theatre // Melbourne Recital Centre // Back to Back Theatre // Melbourne Theatre Company // Next Wave Festival // Port Fairy Spring Festival // Queensland Theatre Company // Rawcus // RMIT University // Seraphim Trio // St Martins Youth Theatre //