PIE BOLTON

DipCer, B.Sc.(Hons) Geology, MFA

Pie Bolton is a contemporary artist working on Boon Wurrung country in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia. Geology is the driving force in her process-based practice as she considers the laying down of sediments over deep geological time, the continuous slow flow of rocks, catastrophic earth events and earth properties such as gravity. Her practice is multi-layered, a combination of writing, thinking, reading, experimentation and making. She writes briefs and imposes her own deadlines. Her ideas fall philosophically into new materialism, the agency of matter and the flattening of anthropocentric hierarchies.

She researches correlations between geologic and ceramic processes and often dissects her work by cutting with concrete saws and grinders to inspect the interior. She reveals what is usually hidden, highlighting the preciousness of the earth and the care we should be taking of it. Her practice is full of continued conversations and collaborations with materials, combined with a constant attentiveness to their, and her own, capacities and tendencies. It is these collaborations which form the bedrock of her practice, a solid base where process is more considered than the outcome. Bolton’s lived experience - childhood memories of place, work as a geologist, and as an artist - reveals a deep connection with the earth and underpins the authenticity of her practice.

Exhibition highlights include winning the 2025 Mornington Peninsula Contemporary Art Prize (MornPen Artist) and being awarded the 2023 Klytie Pate Ceramics Award for work she developed during the AiR program at Police Point (Monmar) on the Mornington Peninsula. She has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions. Bolton’s installation works have consistently sought to create spaces for reflection—both literal and philosophical. In August 2025 she was invited to deliver the Ian Currie Memorial Lecture by Ceramic Arts Queensland and currently has work in the travelling exhibition ‘Shifting Ground’ which will tour Australia for the next four years.

Bolton has been the recipient of a Creative Victoria Grant and an RMIT University Travel Research Grant. In 2015 she undertook a residency at The Pottery Workshop, Jingdezhen, China. She has also spent time in Italy and France researching ceramics and taking part in residencies. Recently she has been working more locally as artist in residence (2022 and 2024) for the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery’s Police Point AiR program on the Mornington Peninsula where she lives in Australia.

In 2022 she was awarded a commission for new work by the City of Melton culminating in a three-month exhibition in the Caroline Springs Gallery. In 2023 Bolton was the winner of an acclaimed Australian national ceramic prize – the Klytie Pate Ceramic Award.

During Covid she established a relationship with The Ceramic School based in Austria and is now internationally recognised for her ceramic firing expertise. She is a regular Clay Doctor on their international online symposia and moderates interviews with guest artists.

She has articles published in Garland Magazine and The Journal of Australian Ceramics. 

Tertiary studies in both art and science (geology), and her endless quest for knowledge have resulted in a unique, authoritative practice. She has tertiary qualifications in ceramics and has completed an MFA at RMIT University, Melbourne. She was employed professionally as a Ceramic Technician, heading up the workshops at Holmesglen TAFE and RMIT University for more than a decade.

In 2019 Bolton founded The Kiln Room, a unique ceramic resource in Melbourne. The Kiln Room was a fully equipped ceramic studio, growing in facilities and services as required by the ceramic community with intent to build connections between artists. Aims were to promote the sharing of knowledge and to embody the continued generosity of spirit of ceramicists and potters. The studio offered Bolton the opportunity to pursue her obsession with the firing process. The Kiln Room offered a specialist ceramic firing service, education program, technical expertise, mentorship, installation consultancy, artist studios and residency program. In early 2025 Bolton sold The Kiln Room. She now concentrates on her own practice in a large studio next door to The Kiln Room which she shares with Mish Merrifield. Bolton’s future plans include establishing a large studio with wood fired kilns in a rural setting on the Mornington Peninsula.

Photo by Rob Barron

My studio is located on the unceded lands of the Boon Wurrung People of the Kulin Nation. I pay my deep respect to their Spirits, Ancestors and Elders, past, present and emerging and extend this respect to all First Nations Peoples across the lands and waters on which I visit, live, work and make.