A well-written biography is required for artists to present themselves and their artistic vision to their potential buyers and collectors. For our monthly and special online art competitions, as well as our “Solo Art Series” competitions, the gallery asks artists to provide a biography. A well-written biography helps to get an artist into our competition’s “Top 10” and to become part of our “Overall” winning artists category.
A good biography is a must when presenting yourself to 1. An art gallery. 2. An art competition. 3. The press. 4. Your website. 5. Anyone you wish to interest in your art.
While many artists believe a biography is written in resume or CV form, that is not the case. We will compare a CV versus a Biography in this article. The following information points will help you to write an artists’ biography:
What should be included in an effective artist’s bio?
An artist’s biography should be written in a well ordered narrative style and always written in the third person. A well-written artist bio helps a reader to connect to the artist and their artwork.
While a CV is fine for some uses, it is not a proper biography and should not be mistaken for one. A CV is often used for professional art opportunities, exhibitions, and residences.
What should be included in a professional artist’s CV?
Keep your CV and the information you provide concise and relevant. Your CV presents strictly factual information about yourself.
Always have a CV and a separate biography available. Determine which document to use based on the type of opportunity for which you are presenting yourself. The College Art Association has terrific information on this subject www.collegeart.org/guidelines/resume.
This article was updated on July 26, 2020.
For our art gallery’s monthly art competitions, artists are required to provide the gallery with an Artist’s Biography and an Artist’s Statement as part of their submission.
During a normal year, we see and review more than 7,600 biographies. We have seen great biographies and terrible biographies with most being somewhere in the middle. Through this process, we have been able to identify common biography mistakes.
Perhaps you will see yourself in some of these examples and be able to correct or improve your existing biography. Here are what we see as common artist’s biography mistakes:
1. Writing the Biography in the First Person
Many artists write their biography in the first person (i.e., “I did this…”, “I was influenced by…”, I intended to…”). Stop! Your biography should sound like it was written by someone else about you. “She did this…”, “He was influenced by…” She intended to…”. Also, use the third person when creating a press release. It sounds more authoritative and professional.
2. Being Boring – Tell a Story
Tell the reader of your biography your story as an artist from the beginning of your pursuit of art until now. Your creative journey has been interesting. Your biography should be too.
A well-written artist’s biography should include the following:
Anyone or anything that has influenced your artwork.
Your education or training in the field of art.
Any related experience in the field of art.
A short description of what you would like to achieve with your art.
3. Confusing an Artist’s Statement with an Artist’s Biography
Many times an artist will substitute an artist’s statement for their artist’s biography. Or, midway through their biography, it will become an artist’s statement. I believe the reason for this is that most people find it easier to talk and write about their art than to talk or write about themselves. For artists, writing, in general, is difficult enough, but writing about themselves is twice as difficult.
4. Providing a CV (Curriculum Vitae) Instead
A CV is a chronological resume of an artist’s experience within the art field. A CV provides the reader with a list of the artist’s education, experience, solo and group exhibitions, teaching experience, texts, and awards etc. It is not a biography, it is a resume. This is not what someone wants from you when they request an artist’s biography.
5. Other Common Errors
Writing a biography that is too short or does not contain enough details about the artist.
Having a biography that is too long. In today’s fast-paced world, a reader will not spend a lot of time reading an artist’s biography. Make the biography concise and easy to read.
A biography that contains spelling errors is really bad. Be sure to spell check yours before you send it in or add it to your artist’s portfolio.
There is no excuse for a biography to have poor sentence structure or poor grammar. Have someone edit it for you.
Forgetting to provide contact information. Name, address, telephone number, email address and a website should all be included.
If you lack experience in the art field (See Number 2 above), no problem. Go back and tell that story about yourself and explain how you have gotten to the point of calling yourself an artist.
Experience, no matter how little or how much, may be important in some areas of the arts, but for artists who want to create, show and sell their art, it is overrated. Its all about the art!
There is a whole generation of “Baby Boomer’s” who started out wanting to be in the arts but life came along an interrupted their dreams. They have 40 or 50-year gaps in their biography. Embrace that gap and tell us how your artistic dream was derailed but not forgotten. Be open and be honest as all of this is part of your artistic journey.
As artists, we all had to start somewhere in our artistic quest. Some artists are just setting out. Other artists may have a great deal of education and experience in the art field.
In life, we all have different paths. This is as true in the arts as in any other endeavor. Your biography should be personal and portray the enthusiasm that has brought you to this point.
Note: Light Space & Time has wonderful examples of artist’s biographies in their Solo Art Exhibition Archive as well as in the gallery’s Artist Showcase Section.
As a condition of our monthly online art competitions, we ask the artists who participate to provide us with an Artist’s Biography as part of their entry submission. This should be between 250 to 500 words in length.
Many new artists either do not provide us with a biography or send us statements such as “I love art and I want to be a professional artist someday” or “I am a self-taught artist and I love creating art.” These statements are not an artist’s biography and will not help an artist interest people in their art.
Are you an artist with no biography and/or with limited artistic experience? It is good for an artist with little or no experience to think of this exercise as creating a Profile, rather than an artist’s biography. Most social media pages have a profile page to fill out when you join a network. Think of your artist biography as a profile page.
Craft a “beginner’s” biography with the following outline:
Experienced artists may include information about artists they have studied under, their art mentors, art exhibitions in which they have participated and art collections that include their art.
Remember: Every new artist must start somewhere. Do not be embarrassed by your lack of an art education or the absence of real experience in the art world. Instead, let everyone know exactly who you are in the art business and where you want to be in the future.
An effective artist biography (bio) is necessary information to have as part of the artist’s presentation to any viewers and interested parties of their artwork. A well written and composed artist bio serves to help a reader to connect to the artist and to the artist's artwork.
An artist bio, when written and created correctly will provide the reader with a greater understanding as to the artist's art, the artist’s motivation for creating their art and finally it will provide a guide or a means for a viewer to interpret the artist’s art. In these terms, the importance of an artist’s bio cannot be stressed enough!
What should be included in an effective artist’s bio?
1. Anyone or anything that has influenced the artist’s artworks.
2. Any education or training in the field of art.
3. Any related experience in the field of art.
4. A summary of the artist’s artistic philosophy.
5. Any artistic insights or techniques that are employed by the artist.
6. A short description of what the artist would like to accomplish with their art.
The following are some helpful hints on how an artist can create an interesting bio;
1. Keep the biography structure short, concise and to the point. A rambling disjointed bio will only confuse or lose the reader altogether. Always write the bio in the third person (as if someone other than the artist is writing the bio).
2. Try to write the bio differently 2 or 3 times and then have someone with good writing and communication skills proof the various bios and help you to pull them together into one great bio (there will be different aspects of each bio that are written better than the others).
3. Get an artist(s) who you respect and admire to read your final version and make any suggestions to help improve the final bio. Does this bio reflect you as a person, as an artist and does it accurately describe your art?
4. Finally, after any changes are made as described above, have someone who is an expert in spelling, grammar and sentence structure review and make any necessary changes to the bio.
Keep your bio up to date with any new work, influences and experience that may have changed you, your art and your artistic perspective. Make sure that you have an appropriate and up to date image of yourself that is included with your bio. Also, update the bio on any other websites and art forums where you post and show your artwork as well.
An effective artist’s bio will not sell any art for an artist but it is the type of information that an artist should have in order to provide to any interested person (buyer, gallery, art rep etc.). Also, this is necessary information that an artist should have, as it will be required during the overall sales process.
