An artist’s resume is a professional document and a primary marketing tool for securing exhibitions, grants, and other opportunities. It presents your artistic practice and accomplishments to galleries, curators, and jurors in a clear, standardized format. This guide will walk through building an effective artist resume that accurately reflects your career.
What is an Artist Resume?
This document differs from a Curriculum Vitae (CV), which is a more comprehensive and longer record of an academic and artistic career. An artist resume is one to two pages, presenting the most pertinent information for a specific opportunity. In contrast, a CV can be four pages or more. The resume is a targeted snapshot intended to make a strong impression.
Key Sections to Include in Your Artist Resume
Contact Information
The top of your resume should clearly display your professional contact details. Include your full name, a professional email address, a phone number, and a link to your professional website or online portfolio. This information should be easy to find, allowing curators to contact you and view your work.
Artist Statement or Objective
You can include a brief artist statement or an objective. An objective is a single sentence tailored to a specific opportunity, such as “Seeking solo exhibition opportunities for the ‘Chromatic Echoes’ series.” An artist statement is a short paragraph of three to five sentences giving a concise overview of your artistic practice, themes, and mediums. A succinct statement is preferred as it provides immediate context for your work.
Education
List your formal academic background in reverse chronological order, starting with your most recent degree like an MFA or BFA. Include the institution’s name, its location, and your graduation year. You can also list relevant non-degree programs, workshops, or mentorships that contributed to your artistic development.
Exhibitions
The exhibitions section is a record of where your work has been shown. It should be organized with the most recent shows first. It is standard to divide this section into subcategories like “Solo Exhibitions” and “Group Exhibitions” for clarity. For each entry, list the year, exhibition title, the venue or gallery name, and its city and state.
Awards, Grants, and Residencies
This section adds credibility by listing any awards, grants, fellowships, or artist residencies you have received. List them in reverse chronological order. Include the year, the name of the award or residency, and the granting institution. These accomplishments demonstrate external validation of your work.
Bibliography or Press
This section, sometimes titled “Press,” documents where your name or artwork has appeared in print or online. Include citations for articles, reviews, and published interviews. The entry should contain the author’s name, the article title, the publication’s name, and the publication date.
Collections
If your artwork has been acquired by institutions or notable private collectors, list them here. List the names of public collections, such as museums or universities, and corporate collections. For private collections, you may list them with the collector’s permission, formatted as “Private collection of [Collector’s Name], City, State.”
Relevant Professional Experience
This section should focus on work experience directly related to your artistic career. This can include positions such as an art instructor, a visiting artist, a curator, or a studio assistant. List the position, the institution or employer, and the dates of employment. Unrelated jobs should be omitted as they do not support your narrative as a professional artist.
Formatting and Design Best Practices
The visual presentation of your resume reflects your professionalism. Aim for a clean, organized document that is easy to scan, keeping the length to one or two pages. A single page is often sufficient for emerging artists, while two pages may be appropriate for those with more extensive careers.
Choose a clean, legible typeface such as Helvetica, Arial, or Garamond in a 10 to 12-point size. This ensures readability without being distracting. Use formatting like bolding and italics consistently to create a clear visual hierarchy that guides the reader’s eye through the document.
Use ample white space to avoid a cluttered appearance and make the content more digestible. Clear headings for each section are necessary for navigation. Always save and submit your resume as a PDF to preserve your formatting across different devices.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Avoid treating the artist resume as a creative project. Using overly decorative fonts, colored paper, or including images of your artwork detracts from its professional purpose and can hinder readability. The design should be understated, allowing your accomplishments to be the focus. Your artwork belongs in your portfolio.
A frequent error is including information irrelevant to your artistic career. This includes personal details like age or marital status, which are unprofessional. The document must remain centered on your life as an artist.
Failing to proofread is a damaging mistake. Typos and grammatical errors suggest carelessness and could cost you an opportunity. It is also important to be truthful; never exaggerate accomplishments, as inaccuracies can be easily discovered in the art world.
Tailoring Your Resume for Different Applications
A one-size-fits-all resume is not the most effective strategy. Tailor your resume for each application, highlighting the experiences most relevant to the opportunity. This shows you have considered the context and are presenting yourself as an ideal candidate. Maintain a master resume with all your accomplishments to edit from for each submission.
For an exhibition at a commercial gallery, prioritize your “Exhibitions” and “Collections” sections by placing them higher on the page. These categories demonstrate a track record of shows and sales, which is of interest to a gallery owner. For a grant or residency, the “Awards, Grants, and Residencies” section should be given prominence.
For an academic or teaching position, your “Education” and “Relevant Professional Experience,” such as teaching or guest lecturing, become more significant. By reordering sections and selecting which accomplishments to include, you can craft a narrative that aligns with the priorities of the specific gallery, institution, or committee. This targeted approach demonstrates an understanding of the opportunity.