Pia Johnson is a photographer and visual artist, whose practice emerged out of a concern with issues of cultural identity and difference, stemming from her mixed background of Chinese and Italian-Australian descent. These themes have underpinned her interest in memory, cultural spaces and performance – where she often features within her works – to investigate notions of transcultural identity, belonging and otherness through photography, moving image and installation. Recently Pia has developed further work on themes of mobility, migration and diasporas of care within domestic and environmental landscapes. Her work has been exhibited across Australia and internationally; and is collected in private and public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria.

Known as one of Australia’s distinctive performance photography and portrait artists, Pia has commissions from all the major and small to medium performing arts organisations in Australia. Pia has been a finalist in many photography awards, including the National Photographic Portrait Prize, Olive Cotton Award, Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Award, Bowness Prize, Ravenswood Australian Womens’ Art Prize, Iris Award, Maggie Diaz Photographic Prize for Women amongst others, and is regularly invited as a guest speaker and artistic advisor for a range of organisations. In 2023 Pia received the inaugural State Library of Victoria Kerri Hall Fellowship for Performing Arts and was the artist in residence at Immigration Museum. Pia teaches at RMIT University School of Art and is the Master of Photography Program Manager and co-lead on the CAST Migration + Mobility + Art research group.

Pia holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Visual arts) and Diploma of Modern Languages (Mandarin) from the University of Melbourne, and has a PhD (Fine Arts) from RMIT University.

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.

You can view her PhD exhibition here

Watch a video about Pia’s latest work ‘Re-Orient’ here

 --

Pia Johnson's work not only references feminism and transculturality, and from my point of view, a remarkable precision, in questioning the well worn assumptions of identity discourse and its sentimentality. Rather these works are, to me, elegant and acute reworkings of our observations towards heritage, and an opening out to multiple and heterogeneous possibilities of linkages where the dynamics of difference, becoming and resonance form our relation to our fore bearers, through the eyes, as if from the innocence of a child seeing the world anew.

... taken from John Young Zerunge's opening night speech from She that came before me (2018)

--

Download full CV here

ARTISTIC RESUME (overview) 

Selected Solo Exhibitions

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, Melbourne

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 Group Exhibitions

2024 Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize, Ravenswood School for Girls, NSW (Finalist)

2023 Bowness Prize, Museum of Australian Photography, VIC (Finalist)

Peonies, Still Life and A Duck, (in collaboration with Janelle Low and Karima Baadilla), Counihan Gallery, VIC

Invisible winds, (co- curator and artist) CLIMARTE Gallery, VIC

2022/2023 The Sitter: Portraits across the collection, Bendigo Art Gallery, VIC

2022 Forest: The Last Stand, CLIMARTE Gallery, VIC

2022 Here We Walk, with Melinda Hetzel & Co, Public art community project, City of Hume, VIC

2022 Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Award, Manly Art Gallery, VIC (Finalist)

2022 Capturing Culture Photography Award, Immigration Museum, VIC (Finalist)

2021/2022 10th Asia Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, QLD

2021/2022 National Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, ACT and National tour

2021 Olive Cotton Award, Tweed Regional Gallery of Art, NSW

2021 Say it With Flowers, Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Ballarat, VIC

2021 Im|mobilities Lives in Turbulent Times, Conference exhibition, Northumbria University, Online

2021 Every Artist Ever, Stockroom Kyneton VIC

2020 The Family Album, Town Hall Gallery, Hawthorn VIC

2019/2020 On the move : The Dion Family, Wollongong Art Gallery, NSW (4A Centre of Contemporary

Asian Art and Wollongong Art Gallery commission)

2019 Her Focus, Footscray Community Arts Centre, VIC

2019 Ravenswood Australian Women’s Prize, NSW (Finalist)

2019 Loud and Luminous ‘Power’ exhibition and book, HeadOn Festival, Sydney (Finalist)

2018    IRIS award, Photography Centre of Perth, WA (Finalist)

2018 Territories, Pingyao International Photography Festival, China

2018                 The Family Mantle (curator and artist), Bundoora Homestead, VIC

2018                 Poked by a bone in the Cupboard, Stockroom Kyneton, VIC

2018                 All that we can't see, Yellow House Gallery, Sydney, & fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne

2017                 The Confessional, Mailbox Art Space, Melbourne

2017                 Martin Kantor Portrait Prize, BIFB, Ballarat VIC (Finalist)   

2017                 Maggie Diaz Photography Prize for Women, Brightspace, VIC (Finalist)

2017                  Chinese Whispers and Other Stories (artist and curator), Huw Davies Gallery PhotoAccess Manuka

                          Arts Centre Canberra & Blindside Gallery Melbourne

2017                 Big Walk to Golden Mountain, Punctum Inc & AsiaTOPA, Ballarat Gallery and Castlemaine Festival VIC

2017                 Closing the Distance, Bundoora House, VIC

2017                 Mixed Tape, Stockroom Kyneton, VIC

2016                 The Museum of International Connectivity, The Dirty Dozen Campbell Arcade, Melbourne CBD

2015                37° South to 19° North: Australian Photography, The Museum of the City of Cuernavaca, Mexico

2015                Maggie Diaz Photography Prize for Women, Brightspace, VIC (Finalist)

2014                Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award, Gold Coast City Gallery, QLD (Finalist)

2014                Settlings, First Site Gallery, RMIT, Melbourne

2013                Camera Work: Contemporary Portraiture, Black Box Gallery, Portland Oregon USA

2013                Periscope, Castlemaine State Festival 2013, Castlemaine VIC

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 VIC

2010                China Obscura, Melbourne International Fine Art (MiFA), Collins St, Melbourne

2010                Making it Sacred, Photography project with Sarah Anderson, CARBON BLACK gallery, Prahran VIC

2010                Asia Now, Melbourne International Fine Art (MiFA), Collins St, Melbourne

2010                Love, Loss and Intimacy, National Gallery of Victoria International, VIC

Awards, Grants & Residencies

2024 Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize, Ravenswood School for Girls, NSW (Finalist)

2023 Bowness Prize, Museum of Australian Photography, VIC (Finalist)

Artist in Residence, Immigration Museum, VIC

State Library of Victoria Kerri Hall Fellowship for Performing Arts Recipient, VIC

2022 Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Award, Manly Art Gallery, NSW (Finalist)

2022 Capturing Culture Photography Award, Victorian Multicultural Commission, Immigration Museum VIC (Finalist)

2021 State Library of Victoria ‘Alchemy’ grant with Melinda Hetzel & Co, VIC (Finalist)

2021 Olive Cotton Award, Tweed Regional Gallery, NSW (Finalist)

2021 National Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, ACT (Finalist)

2021 Australia Council for the Arts Australia-Singapore digital residency grant recipient

2020 BLINDSIDE ARI and National Trust Vic regional art and research residency

2020 Regional Arts Victoria Sustaining Creative Workers Grant recipient

2019 Ravenswood Australian Women’s Prize, NSW (Finalist)

2019 Loud and Luminous ‘Power’ exhibition and book, HeadOn Festival, Sydney (Finalist)

2018 Punctum Inc ‘What if…’ Seedpod residency, Castlemaine VIC

2018    IRIS award, Photography Centre of Perth, WA (Finalist)

2018                 Artist in Residence, National University of Singapore, College of Alice and Peter Tan

2017                 Martin Kantor Portrait Prize, BIFB, Ballarat VIC (Finalist)

2017                 Maggie Diaz Photography Prize for Women, Brightspace, VIC (Finalist)

2015                Maggie Diaz Photography Prize for Women, Brightspace, VIC (Finalist)

2014                Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award, Gold Coast City Gallery, QLD (Finalist)

2014                RMIT University Arts Council Funding Grant recipient

2013                Punctum In-Habit International Grant recipient for Studio Kura Japan Residency

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 grant recipient for Making it Sacred project

2008                City of Melbourne Young Artist Grant Program recipient

2006                ­Hannah Barry Memorial Prize for Merit, University of Melbourne

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

Positions, Teaching and Talks

2022 - current Program Manager, Master of Photography, RMIT University

2020 - current Lecturer, RMIT University, School of Art (Photography, Print, Art History + Theory)

2016 - current Board Member, Punctum Inc

2019                Children’s arts workshop facilitator, Bundoora Homestead

2018                Guest lecturer, National University of Singapore

2017                Chinese Whispers and Other Stories, Public program and panel discussions, PhotoAccess and Blindside

2017                Masterclass Portrait Photography, Stockroom Kyneton

2017                Bundoora Homestead artist talk and children's workshop

2016 - 2019 Sessional Lecturer, RMIT University, School of Art

2016                 Moving Image Cultures of Asian Art conference, ANU, Canberra

2016                 Immigration Museum, Guest artist talk

2016                 University of Melbourne, guest lecture

2016                 University of Melbourne, Theatre forum panelist

2014                NGV Top Arts 20th Anniversary public program talks and panel discussions

2013                Kyushu University Guest lecture and workshop, Fukuoka, Japan

2013                Onward Compe Guest talk, Tokyo, Japan

2013                Australia Commercial and Media Photographers (ACMP) Trampoline session

2011                National Gallery of Victoria, Public Programs Art Start

2010                PechaKucha at Melbourne International Fine Art (MiFA)

2009 - 2016   Founding Board Member and President, Kesho Foundation Inc,

2007 - 2011   Inaugural Board member, Australian Poetry Centre (now known as Australian Poetry)

2005 Founding Co-editor, Above Water, Creative Writing Anthology, University of Melbourne

Education

2021 PhD (Fine Art), RMIT University, School of Art

2005                Bachelor of Creative Arts (Visual Arts)/Dipl. of Modern Languages (Mandarin), Uni. of Melbourne