How To Write An Artist Bio That Doesn't Sound Boring

You know the kind. "Jane Smith is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores the intersection of memory and materiality through a lens of post-colonial discourse."

Nobody reads that. Nobody remembers it. Nobody cares.

An artist bio should make someone want to see your work. It should sound like a person wrote it, not a press release generator. Here's how to write one that actually works.

Keep it short

Your bio should be 80 to 150 words. That's it. If someone needs more than 30 seconds to read it, it's too long.

Galleries don't have time to read your life story. Collectors skim. Instagram followers scroll past anything longer than a few lines. Say what needs to be said and stop.

Start with what you do

Not where you were born. Not where you studied. Not your philosophy. Start with the thing that matters most: what you make.

"I paint portraits of strangers I meet on night buses" is a better opening line than "Born in Manchester in 1994, I graduated from Central Saint Martins with a degree in Fine Art."

Lead with the work. Everything else is context.

Write in first person

"I make" is better than "Smith creates." First person feels human. Third person feels like someone else wrote it about you, which is fine for a press kit but wrong for everything else.

If a gallery needs a third person version, you can always rewrite it. But your default bio should sound like you.

Say why you make it

After you've said what you make, say why. One or two sentences about what drives your work. What you're interested in. What keeps coming back in your practice.

"I'm drawn to faces that aren't performing. The ones people make when they think nobody is looking." That's specific. That's interesting. That gives someone a way into your work before they've even seen it.

Avoid vague words like "exploring" and "interrogating." You're not writing an essay. You're introducing yourself.

Include the basics

After the interesting stuff, add the factual stuff. Where you're based. What mediums you work in. One or two notable exhibitions or achievements if you have them. If you don't have any yet, skip it. Nobody will notice.

"Based in London. Working mainly in oil on canvas. Exhibited with Streeters Gallery and The Holy Art." Short. Factual. Done.

Cut the jargon

If you wouldn't say it to someone at a party, don't put it in your bio.

Words to avoid: practice (just say "work"), multidisciplinary (just list your mediums), liminal, discourse, interrogate, juxtaposition, oeuvre, praxis, semiotics, paradigm.

These words don't make you sound smart. They make you sound like everyone else.

Examples

Here are a few bios that work:

"I paint people on public transport. Oil on canvas, usually large. Based in London. I'm interested in what people look like when they're not trying to look like anything."

"I make collages from old magazines, food packaging and junk mail. I like how something throwaway can become something worth keeping. Based in Paris."

"I photograph empty buildings at night. I'm drawn to places that were designed for people but ended up abandoned. Based in New York, shooting mostly on film."

Each one tells you what the artist makes, why they make it and where they are. In under 50 words.

Write it today

Your bio doesn't need to be perfect. It needs to exist. Write something honest in 100 words, put it on your website and your social profiles, and move on. You can update it any time.

The artists who get shown are not the ones with the best bios. They're the ones who applied.

Open call is live at streetersgallery.net

London. Paris. New York.

Streeters Gallery. The gallery that actually lets you in.