How To Write & Present A Well-Researched Artist Statement

An artist statement is a written document that summarises who you are and what your art is all about. As an artist, an artist statement can help introduce both you and your work to potential buyers, as well as to museum and gallery curators. A good artist statement should also provide a glimpse into your creative process, as well as an overview of the themes you deal with.

If you’re an artist wondering how to craft an effective artist statement, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll walk you through the process of creating a captivating artist statement that will be sure to attract buyers and curators.

The Basics

One of the main challenges of creating art is providing a link between what you want to express internally and your audience. An artist statement gives you the chance to do just that in writing. Think of it as the bridge between your inner voice and those you want to view your art.

An artist statement might be needed when you’re filling out grant applications, sending your portfolio to galleries or museums, putting your art up for sale, building a website, attending interviews and more. You want to make sure your artist statement is both personal and well-researched.

It’s also important to keep in mind that artist statements typically contain pictures. Our best tip here is to use an image to PDF converter to convert your art into a format anyone can open conveniently. It’s also possible to release your artist statement as a press release or even as a poster to be hung up on gallery walls. Just keep in mind that you want your audience to have an easy time accessing it.

Whether you’re sending your statement or samples of your work via email, Dropbox or via a URL, we strongly advise that you find the best method for converting your work to readable/downloadable formats or even looking into compressing your files effectively using your computer processes. You can also use specialised PDF tools that offer a range of additional functions like Adobe Acrobat, which allows for editing PDFs, converting file types to or from PDF formats, facilitating digital signatures on PDF forms, and – you guessed it – compressing PDF files for easy email attachments, web downloads, and more.

Parts of an Artist Statement

Your artist statement should include a quick introduction to grab your readers’ attention. Here, you should summarise your artistic vision and the big-picture themes and motifs present in your work.

In the subsequent sections, you should explain the themes in your art in greater detail. This will help people understand and more fully appreciate your art and the messages you want to convey.

Defining these themes will also give artistic event organisers an idea of whether or not your art would be a good fit. For instance, if your art is about nature, artistic events centred around the natural world would be a natural (pun intended) fit for your work.

You should then talk about your overarching sources of inspiration. This is where research comes in: learn about similar art to yours and talk about how other works have influenced what you do, either stylistically or thematically.

Your artist statement should also describe your processes. Do you have regular routines and approaches to art creation, or does it happen organically? Describe what happens after you conceive an idea and the steps you take from conception to completion. You should also talk about the tools and specific procedures you use.

Finally, talk about the broader context surrounding your art. Do extensive research on trends relating to your work and explain the ways in which it follows and diverges from them. You want to show how your work exists in the broader pantheon of art.

Make the Statement Yours

While research is important, your artist statement should ultimately be a reflection of your personality. Avoid mimicking other artists’ formats and styles, and be genuine when talking about your core message and inspirations.

Make sure to include plenty of real-life experiences that are central to your work. You also want to speak in your own voice, which means you can be as poetic or technical as you want to be (within reason, of course).

Common Mistakes to Avoid

You want your artist statement to be as clear as possible. While you want to maintain your voice, you also want to be concise. This can mean cutting out superfluous words and phrases. You should also use concrete language when talking about concepts, themes and techniques and explain jargon if you need to use it. Avoid making general or vague statements and speak with authority.

As you write, you always want to keep your audience in mind. Emphasise aspects of your art you think would interest them, and don’t go on about something only you’ll find interesting. You also want your artist statement to be easy to read, and a good way of doing this is by breaking it up into subheadings.

When structuring your artist statement, don’t fall into the trap of simply writing whatever comes to mind. Maintain a logical flow of ideas that a reader can follow without much trouble. Group similar ideas together. If you can build a narrative out of your artist statement, then you absolutely should.

Lastly, don’t let your artist statement come off as robotic. As mentioned in the previous section, inject your personality into your work. Speak in your own words and let your artist statement be an authentic reflection of you and your work.

Edit, Edit, Edit

Constant revision is key to a strong artist statement. The first few drafts are for putting your raw ideas to paper: at this stage, don’t worry too much about creating a technically perfect statement.

However, in subsequent revisions, you want to polish things like structure and language, as well as eliminate any typos and grammatical errors you discover. You should also ensure that the message behind your creations stays consistent throughout – any sense of flip-flopping or confusion with key themes can reflect poorly on the strength of your work.

It can also be worthwhile showing your artist statement to a friend, as two pairs of eyes are always better than one when ensuring that your statement provides the strongest first impression for you and your body of work.

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While it’s natural to want to focus on creating art, any artist looking for external recognition will need to equip themselves with an eloquent and focused artist statement. This is where you explain the themes and messages behind your work, as well as give your audience an idea of who you are as an artist.

If you don’t already have an artist statement for works that you’re considering submitting to a gallery or even selling via an art collector, then start working on your first statement today. By applying the tips you’ve learned in this article, you’ll be giving yourself the best possible chance of being recognised by potential buyers and curators of museums and art galleries.