How To Write A Professional Artist Bio

The artist’s biography is arguably one of the most crucial pieces of text and forms of communication for your art career. After reading, writing, and reviewing thousands of artists’ biographies, we have identified all the necessary ingredients for a professional and industry-approved artist biography, empowering artists to have the best chances for success in the high-end art world, explained and illustrated in a step-by-step guide on how you can write your own artist bio.

First and foremost, we must very briefly discuss what makes a sound or professional artist bio. Here at CAI, we offer career advice for artists for success in the highest realms of the art world, pursuing artistic quality, critical recognition, and established gallery representation. From this perspective and objective, we must follow some unwritten rules of the art world so they will take us seriously. As a result, the artist’s bio is not written in the first person; it does not include jokes; it is not the ideal moment to show your personality, nor does it aim to be entertaining or poetic. A professional artist biography has a formal—almost academic—tone; it is descriptive, factual, concise, and, above all, professional.

Feel free to review all the artist biographies of the artists represented on the websites of the mega-galleries; David Zwirner, Gagosian, Thaddaeus Ropac, Lisson Gallery, et cetera. Even more, we can always identify the following ingredients in all those bios; the name and surname, most often concisely in three paragraphs, the different media that define the artist’s practice, a concise description of this practice encompassing the overall aesthetic and subject matter the artist discusses, followed by some factual information including the year and location of birth, where the artist is based, and a brief recital of some important career facts such as notable exhibitions, collections, participations in art events or even important series of work.

In summary, the recipe for a professional artist biography includes a formal tone, a concise text (one up to three paragraphs) in the third person, describing—and not discussing—the artist’s practice, and reciting relevant career facts. Please note how the artist’s biography differs from an artist’s statement. We do not discuss the artist’s mission, the development, and the oeuvre in all its complexity. We remain concise, descriptive, and factual. The artist biography should be communicated on your artist website, your artist page at your gallery, or on online marketplaces, and press releases during exhibitions. The artist statement is more of a personal tool so you can communicate about your oeuvre consistently and convincingly during interviews, exhibitions, studio visits, and so on.

Now that we have established what a good artist biography is let’s move forward with writing our own. You could ask an art critic to assist you; however, with this step-by-step tutorial, you can do it completely free of charge, or to make the process a lot easier, consider using our CAI Artist Bio Tool to streamline the process. If your English or writing is not great, or you have dyslexia, we provide a solution to ensure a fluent and professional text by using ChatGPT throughout the process. Let’s get started!

Step 1: Listing Relevant Information in a Spread Sheet

First and foremost, we must list all relevant and required information in the form of career facts. If we go through all the artist biographies by industry-leading galleries and artists, we notice the following details reoccur over and over again: name and surname of the artist, the year of birth, place of birth, based in, and a recital of notable exhibitions, collections and participations in fairs, residencies, awards, et cetera. In the archetypical structure of the artist’s biography, this factual information will be recited in the final paragraph(s).

E.g.; “Born in 1967 in Kiel, Germany, Abts studied at Hochschule der Künste, in Berlin, from 1988 to 1995. Since 1995, the artist has lived and worked in London. The artist has been represented by David Zwirner since 2005, and had her debut exhibition at the gallery in New York in 2008. In 2014, Abts presented a new body of work at David Zwirner in New York. It coincided with Tomma Abts: Mainly Drawings, the inaugural exhibition at the new Aspen Art Museum in Colorado, which surveyed the artist’s extensive drawing practice, showcasing over forty works from 1996 to the present. The artist’s third solo presentation with the gallery and her first exhibition in New York since 2014 was on view in 2019.“

David Zwirner, Tomma Abts: Biography at https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/tomma-abts/biography consulted July 28, 2023.

The information can and should be found in the artist’s resume. So before writing your artist biography, we advise you first to complete setting up your artist resume following the industry-approved guidelines and structure. You can find all the information, a step-by-step tutorial—including examples and a template—in our complete article on How To Write an Artist’s Resume.

As thoroughly explained in our artist bio tool, we must always write down the location, including the city name followed by the country, and confine ourselves to reciting approximately five notable exhibitions, collections, and participations. Feel free to use this tool to avoid making any mistakes or set up your own spreadsheet listing this information in bullet points:

• Name and surname: …
• Year of birth: … 
• Place of birth: …
• Based in: …
• Notable exhibitions: …
• Collected by: …
• Participated in: …

Step 2: Describing Your Artistic Practice

Next, we must try to briefly discuss our artistic practice academically and descriptively. A professional artist biography opens with a brief description of the artistic practice, encompassing the artistic discipline(s), specifying the material attributes and technique, followed by a concise summary of what the artist is best known for. As a result, we must try to write down these three elements separately, which sets us up nicely for the opening paragraph of the artist’s bio.

E.g.; “Ranging from installations and sculptures to psychedelic paintings and large-scale drawings, Ugo Rondinone’s eclectic practice explores the relationships between opposing forces—day and night, real and artificial, euphoria and depression. His most recognizable works are his colorful “Rocks” sculptures: vertically stacked rocks painted in fluorescent colors.”

Artsy, Ugo Rondinone at https://www.artsy.net/artist/ugo-rondinone consulted July 28, 2023.

Afterward, possibly in a new paragraph, we can delve deeper into the subject matter, discussing some recurring motifs or concepts, the process, or even briefly discussing some important projects or series of work.

E.g.; “The body has always been both her subject and medium. Exploring her physical and mental limits in works that ritualise the simple actions of everyday life, she has withstood pain, exhaustion and danger in her quest for emotional and spiritual transformation. From 1975-88, Abramović and the German artist Ulay performed together, dealing with relations of duality. She returned to solo performances in 1989 and for The Artist Is Present (2010) she sat motionless for at least eight hours per day over three months, engaged in silent eye-contact with hundreds of strangers one by one.“

Lisson Gallery, Marina Abramovic at https://www.lissongallery.com/artists/marina-abramovic consulted July 28, 2023.

As with our previous step, make sure to follow the instructions closely when using our artist bio tool, or add the following bullet points to your own spreadsheet:

• Artistic discipline/type of artist: …
• Specify medium: … 
• Best known for: …
• Subject matter: …
• Important projects or series: …

Step 3: Structurally Generating the Artist’s Biography

Now that we have all the input and necessary information written down in our spreadsheet or artist bio tool, we are all set to generate the artist biography with the help of ChatGPT and follow the archetypical structure for artist biographies we have identified throughout this article.

Open ChatGPT in your browser—log in or signup to use the free version. Instruct ChatGPT to write your artist biography, mentioning your name, date, and place of birth, your current location, artistic discipline, medium, and what you are best known for in the first paragraph. Next, ask ChatGPT to discuss the subject matter and important series or projects in the second paragraph. To conclude, you request to recite notable exhibitions, collections, and participation in the third paragraph. Make sure to copy and paste all the information from your spreadsheet.

You can also instruct ChatGPT to write in a formal and academic style. To avoid making mistakes, we have provided a predesigned prompt you can copy and paste into ChatGPT, followed by the information from the spreadsheet, using the aforementioned CAI Artist Bio Tool.

Step 4: Review, Regenerate, Edit & Save

After ChatGPT has provided us with a first draft of your professional artist biography, it is time to review and possibly regenerate the text.

A common mistake is that ChatGPT fails to confine itself to three paragraphs. Or sometimes, the writing can be a bit cliché with rather pointless statements such as “inviting the viewer into a wonderful world” or “embarking on a wonderful artistic journey” that can be a bit too cheesy for an academic and professional biography. Make some changes or add instructions to regenerate the text until you are completely satisfied. Always verify if all the ingredients discussed throughout this article are present in the final text and that the given structure is followed.

Now, it is time to save and publish the artist’s biography. Congratulations! You have just increased your chances for success in the high-end art world with an industry-approved text bio to use on your website, press releases, and invitations. For more career advice, discover more articles, tools, webinars, and services here.

Spreadsheet To Generate A Professional Artist Biography

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Last Updated on August 1, 2023