How To Create A Professional Artist Website

Table of contents

We are pleased to present a definitive, industry-approved tutorial on creating a professional artist website that will increase your chances for success in the art world. Step by step, we will walk you through everything you need to know about websites for artists today and show you how you can create your website today, efficiently and successfully, going for top quality at the best price—possibly in less than just one hour of your time. Too good to be true? Not at all.

As a contemporary art platform and art gallery in close dialogue with numerous successful artists, for this article, we have combined our experience with thorough research prior to writing this article, analyzing countless websites by successful emerging and mid-career (with established artists, things are slightly different because everything goes through their galleries, estates, or foundations) of all ages and different geolocations. By doing so, we have identified the unwritten rules and archetypical structure for artist websites. We’ll explain what galleries and collectors are looking for and what you absolutely must avoid, but nobody is telling you.

An artist’s website is the crucial link between you and the professional art world. It functions as an online business card and makes your professional resume and portfolio publicly available for those who have gathered interest in your work. As a result, the artist’s website is where the gallery director, collector, or curator will decide whether or not to work with you. If you have set up your website correctly—as instructed in this article—your chances will be optimal for success. Whereas if you are unaware of the art world’s unwritten rules regarding artist websites, they will not take you seriously and instantly lose interest.

So your artist website makes a difference, if not the difference, between a first success and the start of a prosperous career or remaining under the radar for perpetuity. So let’s dissect and discuss those notorious unwritten rules, after which we can apply them to create your industry-approved website today and show you how. Here comes!

1. Understanding the Unwritten Rules and Archetypical Structure for Artist Websites

Before we start creating our artist website, we must understand what we have to create. For this chapter and throughout the years, we have visited and analyzed hundreds of artist websites by successful artists in different phases of their careers and places worldwide. Yet, all these ‘serious’ and professional artists have the same structure, pages, and look. A coincidence? Not at all.

These websites align with the art world’s expectations of your website’s appearance and what information it should communicate. Very similar to the websites of established art galleries, a few must-have pages form the industry-approved archetypical structure for websites. If you follow this structure, the seasoned gallery director, critic, or collector will recognize this structure and conclude you know what you’re doing—being a “serious artist,” “art world insider,” or simply having a professional approach to your artistic practice and profile.

This also implies that as soon as you have something on your website that does not align with this structure and expectations, you will be seen as unprofessional, an outsider, and not a serious artist they want to work with or collect. As a result, we highly recommend that you follow this structure and tutorial closely because every page or action not included in this tutorial is an unnecessary risk and a potential dealbreaker. For your convenience, we have listed some of the most common mistakes to avoid later in this chapter.

So let’s start and discuss the expected overall look and feeling for artist websites, the three must-have pages, some possible—but not necessary—pages one could add, and what to avoid at all times.

1.1 The Overall Look, Design & Feeling

Sometimes, it is expected of artists to show their personality and to be creative—for instance, with interviews or simply in their works—and there are times when it is expected of the artist to be formal, professional, and a little bit elusive. The latter is the desired behavior and attitude regarding your artist’s website’s overall look, design, and feeling.

Artist websites have a minimal and high-end design characteristic of the art world. Less is more, using a simple black or dark grey font—think of popular sans-serif fonts such as Helvetica Neue and Arial, or serif fonts such as Garamond and Times New Roman—on a plain white background. If you look at the websites of established art galleries and successful emerging and mid-career artists, they all go for this minimal and professional style and design.

An original design can sometimes work—if you have a graphic designer who understands the subtle differences between what is acceptable and what is not. However, it is always a risk. So instead of going for crazy designs, or trying to look like a big company or platform, act as if you aren’t trying at all, which is not as easy as it sounds. But no worries, we will assist you further in designing your website in our next chapter.

E.g.: The design of the artist website of Edith Dekyndt (2023) — Studio Edith Dekyndt ©