What is an artist CV?

An artist CV is a structured professional record of an artist's visual-art career. It typically includes exhibitions, education, awards, residencies, collections, publications, commissions and professional memberships. It is used in open calls, gallery submissions, grant applications and on the artist's website.

How is an artist CV different from a normal CV?

A normal CV is built around employment history. An artist CV is built around exhibitions, education, awards and professional visual-art activity. It usually omits unrelated jobs, generic personal profiles and standard employment-CV phrases such as "references available on request".

How long should an artist biography be?

Most artists need three versions: a short profile of 40–80 words for social media and listings, a standard biography of 100–200 words for website About pages and submissions, and a longer biography of around 250–300 words for catalogues and press packs.

Should an artist CV include employment history?

Generally no. An artist CV focuses on visual-art activity. Non-art employment is only worth including where it directly informs the practice, for example a long-term teaching role or technical work that is genuinely part of the artist's professional life.

What should an emerging artist put on a CV?

Emerging artists should focus on selected group exhibitions, open calls, residencies, relevant courses and any credible publications. A short, honest CV is stronger than a padded one. Use "Selected Exhibitions" rather than presenting an incomplete history as a complete one.

Should an artist biography be written in first or third person?

Third person is the most common convention, especially for biographies used in submissions, catalogues and press packs. First-person biographies can work for personal website About pages where the artist wants a more conversational tone, but the third-person version is still useful to have for everywhere else.

Do I need both an artist CV and an artist statement?

Yes. They do different jobs. The CV records the artist's professional history. The statement explains the work itself. Galleries, curators and open-call panels usually expect both, alongside images of the work and a short biography.

Artist CV and Biography

Q: What should an artist biography include?

An artist biography should include the artist's name, location, medium, subject or themes, relevant training, selected exhibitions or achievements, and current focus. It is written in readable prose, usually in the third person, and is kept factual rather than promotional.

How to write an artist CV and biography for websites, portfolios, open calls and galleries, with practical examples and structure.

14 min read

Artist CV and biography documents beside a portfolio website preview, notebook and studio materials on a clean desk

Most practising artists need more than one piece of professional writing about themselves. A short biography for the About page of a website. A longer biography for catalogues and press packs. A clean artist CV for open-call submissions and gallery enquiries. And, separately, an artist statement that talks about the work rather than the career.

These texts are easy to confuse, and the confusion shows. An artist biography that reads like a job CV. A CV padded with unrelated employment. A statement glued onto the end of a bio because the artist did not realise the two are different documents. None of it is fatal, but all of it makes the artist look less considered than the work deserves.

This guide is written for practising visual artists who need a professional artist CV and biography for websites, portfolios, open calls, galleries, exhibitions and submissions. It is not a guide for music artists, makeup artists, tattoo artists, VFX or graphic-design job seekers, and it does not try to be a general employment CV resource. The aim is simple: explain what an artist CV is, what an artist biography is, how the two fit together with the artist statement, and how to write both clearly without inflating or apologising.

If you have looked at any artist CV example online and felt unsure whether your own draft is on the right track, this is intended as a practical reference you can come back to.

Artist CV, biography and statement: what is the difference?

Artists are often asked for "a short bio", "a CV", or "a statement" without much guidance about what each one actually is. The three documents do different jobs, and the short profile is simply a compressed version of the biography.

Text	Main purpose	Typical length	Where used
Artist biography	Readable prose introduction to the artist and their practice	100–250 words	Website About page, catalogues, press packs, gallery submissions
Artist CV	Structured record of exhibitions, education, awards, residencies, publications and collections	1–2 pages	Open calls, gallery submissions, grant applications, residencies
Artist statement	Explanation of the work itself: concerns, process, ideas	100–300 words	Exhibition labels, project applications, website Work page
Short profile	Compressed biography for tight spaces	40–80 words	Social media, listings, artwork captions, brief intros

Do not try to write one text that does all four jobs. A biography written as a statement is hard to read at a glance. A statement written as a CV reads like a list of credits. A CV written like a biography hides the information that selection panels, curators and galleries need to scan quickly.

If you are working on the statement side of this, the companion guide How to Write an Artist Statement goes into the statement in more depth and is worth reading alongside this article.

What should an artist biography include?

A good artist biography gives a clear, factual picture of who the artist is and what they make. It is written in prose, usually in the third person, and it should feel readable rather than promotional.

Core elements to consider:

Artist name
Location or where they are based
Medium or discipline
Subject, themes or concerns of the work
Process or approach where relevant
Relevant training or background
Selected exhibitions or achievements
Collections, awards or memberships if relevant
Current focus or current body of work

The tone should be factual, clear and confident, but not inflated. Specifics carry the weight: a named medium, a named place, a named concern. Vague claims about "exploring the human condition" or "pushing the boundaries of contemporary art" do the opposite of what they are meant to do.

Avoid:

Vague claims and unsupported superlatives
Exaggerated language about awards, influence or critical acclaim
Personal history that is not relevant to the practice
A biography that reads like a statement about the work
A biography that simply repeats every entry on the CV in prose

The biography introduces the artist. The CV records the artist's professional history. Keep that distinction in mind and the biography becomes much easier to write.

Artist biography example structure

Most workable artist biographies follow a recognisable shape. It is not a formula, but it gives you something to push against if you are starting from a blank page.

A simple structure to begin with:

Opening sentence: who the artist is and what they do.
Practice sentence: medium, subject, approach or themes.
Professional context: exhibitions, awards, training or collections.
Current work: what they are making now.
Optional final sentence: where they are based, who represents them, or where the work can be seen.

A reusable pattern looks like this:

"[Artist name] is a [location]-based [medium/discipline] artist whose work explores [themes/subject]. Working primarily in [medium/process], they [brief process/approach]. Their work has been shown at/in [selected exhibitions/contexts] and is held in [collections/clients if relevant]. Their current practice focuses on [current body of work]."

This is a template, not a real artist biography. Treat it as a scaffold to fill with your own specifics and then edit until it sounds like writing rather than a form. Strong biographies almost always go through several passes before they read naturally.

Short artist bio examples

Below are three short artist bio examples. They are written as templates so you can see the shape clearly. They are not real artists, and the named places, mediums and themes are placeholders rather than recommendations.

Emerging artist short bio example

For artists with limited exhibition history, the short bio should focus on the practice, the medium, where the artist is based, the current body of work and any relevant training or selected group activity.

"[Artist name] is a painter based in [city], working with oil and water-based media on canvas and board. Their work draws on observed landscape and edge-of-town environments, and on the relationship between drawing and painting. They have shown in selected group exhibitions including [exhibition], [exhibition] and [exhibition], and completed [course/workshop] at [institution]. Their current work is a series of small studio paintings made over the last year."

Notice what is missing: there are no apologies for being early-career and no padded employment history. The emphasis is on the practice itself.

Mid-career artist short bio example

A mid-career bio can include exhibitions, collections, awards or representation, but should still be concise and readable.

"[Artist name] is a [city]-based sculptor whose work investigates material memory and domestic space. Recent solo exhibitions include [exhibition] at [venue] and [exhibition] at [venue], with group shows in the UK and internationally. Their work is held in private collections in the UK, Europe and North America, and has been supported by [award/residency]. They are represented by [gallery]."

The line about representation only appears if it is true. Do not infer representation from a single show.

Artist website bio example

The website About-page biography can be slightly warmer and more readable than the version used in submissions. It still avoids floral language, but it allows a little more breathing room.

"[Artist name] is a [discipline] artist based in [city]. Their work moves between [primary medium] and [secondary medium], drawing on [subject] and on a long-running interest in [theme]. Recent projects include [project] and [project]. A fuller record of exhibitions, awards and publications is available on the artist's CV page, and the artist statement sets out the ideas behind the current work in more detail."

A short website biography of this kind works best as an About-page introduction. It can point readers towards a fuller CV page and a separate artist statement, but it should still read as a biography rather than as navigation text.

What should an artist CV include?

A professional artist CV is a structured record of the artist's career in visual art. It is not an employment CV. It does not need a personal profile, generic soft skills or unrelated jobs.

Common sections, in roughly the order most artists use:

Name and contact details
Website or portfolio link
Short heading or discipline line (for example: "Artist, painting and works on paper")
Education and training
Solo exhibitions
Selected group exhibitions
Awards and prizes
Residencies
Collections
Publications and press
Commissions and public art projects
Memberships and professional affiliations
Talks, workshops and teaching
Selected bibliography
Representation or galleries, if applicable

Not every artist needs every section. Order depends on career stage. An early-career artist might lead with selected group exhibitions and education. A mid-career artist might lead with solo exhibitions and collections. The aim is to make the relevant strengths easy to scan.

Keep the content focused on visual art activity. Avoid employment-style personal statements. If you have non-art work, only include it where it directly informs the practice.

Artist CV example structure

A workable artist CV structure looks something like this:

Name and contact
Website or portfolio link
Selected exhibitions (solo, then selected group)
Education and training
Awards and residencies
Collections and commissions
Publications and press
Professional memberships
Other relevant activity (talks, teaching, workshops)

Each section is best laid out as a clean list, with dates on the left and the entry on the right, in reverse chronological order. Sample formatting:

Selected Exhibitions
2026 — Exhibition Title, Gallery Name, City
2025 — Open Call Exhibition, Organisation, City
2024 — Group Exhibition, Venue, City

Awards
2026 — Shortlisted, Award Name
2025 — Selected Artist, Open Call Name

Education
2018 — BA (Hons) Fine Art, Institution, City

Reverse chronological order is standard: most recent first. This lets a reader see the current shape of the practice without scrolling through a decade of old entries to find it.

Names of venues, organisations and cities should be specific. "Various galleries, UK" is weaker than three named venues.

Artist CV for emerging artists

Early-career artists often worry that their CV looks thin. The temptation is to pad it with every minor activity. The result usually looks weaker, not stronger, because it dilutes the entries that genuinely matter.

A more useful approach:

Include selected group exhibitions, open calls, local shows, workshops and relevant courses.
Include self-directed projects only when they were professionally presented and publicly visible.
Include online exhibitions only where they were genuinely curated and credible.
Avoid apologetic wording. Do not write "still building exhibition history" — just list what is there.
Do not include unrelated employment unless it directly explains the practice.
One page is more than enough at this stage.
Use "Selected Exhibitions" rather than pretending to have a full exhibition history.

A short, honest CV is stronger than a long CV filled with weak or irrelevant entries. Curators and open-call panels read a great deal of work; they can usually tell when a CV has been padded, and the impression is not the one most artists are trying to give.

If you are still building your exhibition history, Open Calls for Artists and How to Get Your Art Into a Gallery are useful companion pieces.

Artist CV vs normal CV or résumé

An artist CV is not a job CV. The conventions are different, and the audience is different. A few practical points worth being clear about:

No employment history unless directly relevant to the practice.
No personal profile full of generic soft skills.
No "references available on request".
The focus is exhibitions, practice, education, awards and professional visual-art activity.
Use clear dates, named venues and locations.

The word "résumé" is the more common US term for what is essentially the same document. You may see "artist resume example" and "artist resume or CV" in search results. In the UK, the standard term is artist CV, and this guide uses CV throughout.

If you are coming from a non-art employment CV, the most useful change is to stop thinking of the artist CV as a sales document about you, and to start thinking of it as a record about your practice.

Where to use your artist CV and biography

A clean artist CV and biography are used in more places than artists often realise. The most common are:

Website About page
CV or Exhibitions page on the website
Artist portfolio website and PDF portfolio
Open-call submissions
Gallery submissions and enquiries
Exhibition catalogues
Press packs
Grant and residency applications
Social media short profile fields
Artwork listings where a brief professional context is helpful

For the website side of this, Artist Portfolio Examples, What Makes a Good Artist Website?, Best Artist Portfolio Websites and How to Build an Artist Website all show how the biography and CV sit within a broader online presence.

Across all of these contexts, the underlying texts should be consistent. The short bio on social media should agree with the website biography, which should agree with the longer biography in catalogues, which should agree with the CV. Minor edits for length are fine; contradictory facts are not.

How to keep your CV and biography up to date

A CV and biography that have not been updated for two years usually look it. The fix is to treat them as living documents that travel with the practice.

Update the CV and biography after every exhibition, award, publication or residency.
Keep one master CV and one master biography file.
Keep short, medium and long biography versions: 50 words, 100 words and 200–300 words.
Remove outdated or weak exhibition entries when the CV starts to feel long.
Keep the website, PDF portfolio, social bios and submissions consistent with each other.
Store the underlying facts properly: dates, venues, links, supporting documentation, press cuttings.
Where relevant, link CV entries to specific artwork records so the exhibition history of each work is clear.
Press and exhibition history can also support provenance and overall professional credibility over time.

Vault Canvas helps artists keep portfolio, exhibition history, artwork records and supporting documentation connected, so website text, CV entries and artwork archives do not drift apart over the years. For the underlying record-keeping side, Artwork Management for Artists, Artwork Archive Database / Record System and What Is Artwork Provenance? go into the supporting infrastructure in more depth.

Common artist CV and biography mistakes

A few patterns come up repeatedly and are worth checking your own drafts against.

Confusing the biography with the artist statement.
Writing in vague artspeak rather than clear, specific language.
Borrowing employment-CV language into the artist CV.
Listing every minor activity rather than selected highlights.
Missing dates on exhibitions, awards or training.
Missing locations on venues.
Missing the website link from the CV.
An outdated CV that stops two or three years before the current date.
A biography that is too long for any actual use.
No short version of the biography, so social media and listings end up with truncated paragraphs.
Inconsistent facts across website, open calls and PDFs.
Exaggerated claims about exhibitions, collections or representation.

Most of these are easy to fix in a single editing pass. The harder one is the question of tone, which is often only resolved by reading several drafts aloud.