Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Emma Pike is a preeminent curator based in Lutruwita, Tasmania, driven by a vision to support artists in realising ambitious, socially resonant projects. Her practice centers on site-specific and community-engaged commissions, where she provides artists with a supportive framework that encourages risk-taking and fosters compelling creations. With an empathetic and collaborative approach, Emma has facilitated the integration of local narratives and community voices into the global practice of visionary international and Australian artists. For over fifteen years, Emma honed her expertise at two of Australia’s most distinctive and curatorially ambitious arts organisations: The Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart (Mona) 2017–2024, and Kaldor Public Art Projects in Sydney, 2011–2016. These trailblazing institutions, each in their distinct way, have redefined the Australian art landscape by challenging conventional norms. At Mona, Emma delivered inspiring exhibitions which included groundbreaking artists such as: Tino Sehgal; Tomas Saraceno; Danh Vo; Taryn Simon; Jeremy Deller; Kate Harding; Cornelia Parker; He Xiangyu; Robert Andrew and Simon Denny. She also led a provocative visual arts program for Mona’s summer festival Mona Foma creating site specific projects with the likes of: Emeka Ogboh; Ed Atkins; Rachel Mclean; Vernon Ah Kee and Kartanya Maynard; Ryan Presley; Annika Kahrs; Althea Thauberger + Kite and Angelica Mesiti and Anri Sala. At Kaldor Public Art Projects, Emma worked closely with John Kaldor, supporting the delivery of ten projects. In 2015, she co-curated Marina Abramovic’s Australian Artists Residency Program connecting the provocative and visionary artist with twelve Australian performance practitioners. In 2016 she curated Xavier Le Roy’s captivating work Temporary Title, a collaborative project engaging eighteen Australian performers and Jonathan Jones’s masterpiece barrangal dyara (skin and bones), which connected with innumerable First Nations cultural experts from the East Coast of Australia, a formative project for her curatorial values. In 2025, drawing inspiration from these visionary legacies, Emma returns to her roots as an independent curator – a path she forged in Berlin in 2008 as Director of VIDEOKILLS, an artists' collective showcasing video art in non-museum spaces. This chapter will see her develop major exhibitions locally and internationally, as well as a major artists' residency program, creating unparalleled opportunities for artists to immerse themselves in the breathtaking landscapes of Lutruwita.
2024 Co-Curator with Jane Clarke, Jarrod Rawlins and Sarah Wallace: Namedropping, Mona Key Artists: Danh Vo, Tino Sehgal, Ai Wei Wei, Taryn Simon, Anslem Kiefer, Paul Yore, Tom Sachs, Elmgreen & Dragset, Steven Rhall, Thomas Struth, Vincent Namatjira (and over 200 others) Co-Curator with Ineke Dane: BOATS, Emeka Ogboh, Mona Foma, Detached Curator: Yahon Chang, PW1, Mona Foma 2023 Curator: Fantastic Futures at the Old TAFE building, Launceston, Mona Foma Artists: APHIDS, Tellervo Kalleinen + Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, Martina Hoogland Ivanow, Jonathas de Andrade, Kenneth Tam, Miyarrka Media, Pony Express, Safdar Ahmed, Terrapin, Marnie Weber and Willoh S. Weiland. Pony Express, The Queer Woodchop, The Museum of Old and New Art, Mona Foma 2022 Co-Curator with Olivier Varenne: Tomás Saraceno, Oceans of Air, Museum of Old and New Art with Zoe Rimmer, Vernon Ah Kee and Kartanya Maynard, warr! Parliament House Gardens, Hobart and waranta takamuna! Prince’s Square, Launceston, Mona Foma Curator: Robert Andrew, Museum of Old and New Art Anri Sala, Time No Longer, PW1, Hobart, Mona Foma Megan Cope, Untitled (Death Song), the old Allgoods outdoors store, Launceston, Mona Foma Thomas Demand, Pacific Sun, the old National Theatre at Foot and Playstead, Launceston, Mona Foma Ed Atkins, The Worm, the old Video City, New Town, Mona Foma Ed Atkins, Ribbons, the old Allgoods outdoors store, Launceston, Mona Foma 2021 Co-Curator with Jarrod Rawlins, James Capper, PROTOTYPES OF SPECULATIVE ENGINEERING, Museum of Old and New Art
2021 Curator - Listen Deeply, Princess Theatre, Launceston and State Theatre, Hobart Mona Foma Artists: Anri Sala, Annika Kahrs, Christian Thompson, Althea Thauberger + Kite and Angelica Mesiti - No Place Like Home, K+D Warehouse, Hobart Mona Foma Artists: Tony Albert, Zanny Begg, Peter Brennan, Andy Hutson, Rachel Maclean, Nell, Ryan Presley, Phebe Schmidt - Michael Sailstorfer, Hobart Digs, Hinsby Beach, Taroona Mona Foma 2020 Curator - Double Double, Queen Victoria Museum and Gallery (QVMAG), Launceston Mona Foma Collaborators: Jo Lloyd, Deanne Butterworth, Tina Havelock Stevens and Evelyn Ida Morris. Co-Curator - with Pippa Mott, The Centre, Elphin Sports Centre, Launceston Mona Foma Artists: Alexandra Bachzetsis, Tarryn Gill + Pilar Mata Dupont, Jess Olivieri + Hayley Forward with the Parachutes for Ladies, Ali Kazma, Liz Magic Laser, Katy B Plummer, Katy B Plummer, Khaled Sabsabi, Tony Schwensen, Dominik Jałowiński + Piotr Wysocki and Hissy Fit - with Pippa Mott, Zoe Rimmer and James Tylor kipli paywuta lumi, Trevallyn Nature Reserve, Launceston Mona Foma Collaborators: Dave mangenner Gough, Anna Leibzeit, Samantha Rich, Tim Sculthorpe and James Tylor Committee - Contemporary Arts Tasmania Program Committee 2017-2020 with: Pat Brassington, Scot Cotterell, Michael Edwards, Caitlin Farger, Stephanie Han, Kylie Johnson, Rob O’Connor and Brigita Ozolins.
2019 Co-Curator - with Jarrod Rawlins, Simon Denny, Mine, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart. Curator - Heath Franco’s CLUB LIMBO, Launceston Workers Club, Launceston Mona Foma - Rosie Deacon’s FFS (Fashion Forest Seduction), Launceston Workers Club, Launceston Mona Foma - Lou Hubbard, The Leger Melee, Queen Victoria Museum and Gallery (QVMAG), Launceston Mona Foma 2018 - Assistant curator, with Nicole Durling and Olivier Varenne Fabien Giraud and Raphael Siboni’s The Everted Capital, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart. - Assistant curator with Nicole Durling and Olivier Varenne Fabien Giraud and Raphael Siboni’s The Unmanned, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart.
2016 - Curator, Kaldor Public Art Project 32, Jonathan Jones’ barrangal dyara (skin and bones), Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney. - Author, Introductory essay for the barrangal dyara (skin and bones) project catalogue. Editor: Genevieve O’Callaghan 2015 - Curator, Kaldor Public Art Project 31, Xavier Le Roy’s Temporary Title, 2015, Carriageworks, Everleigh. with Scarlet Yu and Australian collaborators: Natalie Abbott; Christine Babinskas; Geraldine Balcazar; Georgia Bettens; Eugene Choi; Matthew Day; Lauren Eiko; Peter Fraser; Ryuichi Fujimura; Alice Heyward; Becky Hilton; David Huggins; Marcus McKenzie; Kathryn Puie; Amaara Raheem; Darcy Wallace; Adam Warburton and Ivey Wawn. - Co-Curator with Sophie O’Brien, Kaldor Public Art Project 30, Australian Artists’ Residency Program, Marina Abramović: In Residence, Pier 2/3, Walsh Bay, Sydney. Artists: Christian Thompson, Clark Beaumont, Frances Barrett, George (Poonkhin) Khut, Lottie Consalvo, zin (Harriet Gillies and Roslyn Helper), Nicola Gunn, Natalie Abbott, Sarah Rodigari, Clark Beaumont (Sarah Clark and Nicole Beaumont) and Sarah-Jane Norman.
The VIDEOKILLS Digital Artist's Studio was supported by the City of Sydney's Creative Spaces program and provided affordable studio space to digital artists in the heart of Sydney.
Since 2012 Emma has worked with acclaimed international artists on several Kaldor Public Art Projects as Curatorial and Communications Coordinator: Tino Sehgal's 'This is so contemporary' 2014; Roman Ondák, 2014; Hans Ulrich Obrist and Kalus Biesenbach's '13 Rooms', 2013; Allora & Calzadilla's 'Stop, Repair, Prepare', 2012; Thomas Demand's 'The Dailies', 2012.
Emma was Curatorial and Communications Assistant at Kaldor Public Art Projects from 2010-2011. She assisted on projects: Michael Landy's 'Acts of Kindness', 2011; John Baldessari's 'Your Name in Lights', 2011.