As part of the submission process for our monthly online art competitions, we ask artists to provide the gallery with a biography or an artist statement. For our Solo Art Series exhibitions, we ask for the competing artists to provide both with their entries. In many cases, we see artists who get these two mixed-up or they are combined.
New and emerging artists should understand that a well-written artist biography is a must when presenting themselves to 1. An art gallery. 2. An art competition. 3. To the press. 4. On your website. 5. Or to anyone who is interested in your art.
In this post, we will compare an Artist Biography versus an Artist Statement. The following categories or subjects will help an artist to write an artist's biography:
Include the following information in your artist biography:
The artist biography should always be written in the “third person” (as an outsider looking in, and uses pronouns like "he", "she", "it", or "they" in the biography).
However, an artist statement is different. Think of an artist statement as the artist communicating to the viewer about the art, in the artist’s absence. Therefore, an artist statement should be short, concise and well written in conversational language. The following recommendations will help an artist to write an effective artist statement.
Include the following information in your artist statement:
The artist statement should always be written and presented in the “first person” (writing from the person’s point-of-view or from the artist’s perspective).
It takes quite a bit of time to write an effective biography and to craft a concise and compelling artist statement. Look and study the top artist’s biographies and artist statements and then adapt yours to their formatting.
In our Solo Art Exhibition Archives, any of the artists in this section of our website have the best examples of good artist biographies and artist statements. Artists should always keep these documents up-to-date and try to improve them whenever possible.