Writing your artist bio and artist statement
It's the text everyone puts off — and the one you'll be asked for at every application, every exhibition, every sale. A simple method is enough to write it without suffering.
Bio, statement, artwork texts: which does what
They are often confused — yet they don't answer the same question, nor the same reader.
Who you are
Your background in a few sentences, in the third person: training or a singular path, where you work, what characterises it. Short, factual, no superlatives — it's the text people copy into a dossier or a press release.
Why you work
The text about your work — not about you. First person: what you make, how, and what drives you. It's what fair juries, gallerists and curious visitors actually read.
Each piece, in a few lines
A title and description per work: the context of one specific piece, not a manifesto. Good news — on MycreArt, the analysis pre-fills them automatically from the photo: you edit, you don't write from scratch.
The statement in three questions
Answer these three questions in writing, without censoring yourself — the statement is already there.
What?
What your work does, concretely: subjects, materials, formats, gestures. "I paint large landscapes in oil with a knife" says more than "I explore materiality".
How?
Your way of working: where pieces start, how they are built, what happens in the studio. It's the part only you can tell — and the one readers find most interesting.
Why?
What drives you and what the work is after: a question, an obsession, a territory. No grand theory needed — one true, precise reason beats a borrowed concept.
Write a lot, cut afterwards. Expect three drafts, and have the last one read by someone outside the art world: if they understand everything, you've won.
What makes the reader give up
Four habits show up in most statements — all of them are easy to fix.
Jargon
"Questioning the interstices of the visible", "deconstructing materiality": art-school vocabulary drives readers away, professionals included. Describe in plain words what a visitor would see in your studio.
Generic phrases
"I am inspired by nature", "I have painted since childhood", "art is my passion": true for a thousand artists, they say nothing about yours. If the sentence could apply to someone else, cut it.
Tentative language
"I hope my work…", "I believe I can…": excess caution weakens the point. Describe what the work does, not what you hope it does.
Talking about yourself instead of the work
The statement is neither a CV nor a confession: your childhood, diplomas and states of mind belong in the bio — or nowhere. The subject is what happens in the work.
Nothing is set in stone. A statement gets rewritten at every important step: new series, new exhibition, new direction. Today's version must describe today's work — not the work of five years ago.
Written once, these texts work everywhere
Your MycreArt profile has a dedicated field for each — and publishes them in the right places.
Bio, statement and studio intro
Three dedicated fields in your profile, in French and English. They feed your public page, the About and Studio pages of your Pro Site, and your PDF catalogues — without retyping a line.
The CV writes itself
Exhibitions, awards and distinctions, press articles: entered in your profile, they appear as clean sections on your About page. No need to cram them into the bio — it stays short, the track record stays complete.
Artwork texts, pre-filled
For each work, the analysis proposes a bilingual title and description from the photo. The most frequent blank page — the one on every record — disappears: you edit instead of starting from nothing.
Bilingual without double work
Each text exists in French and English; visitors read in their language. If the English is missing, the French shows in the meantime — nothing is ever empty.
What artists ask
Between 100 and 250 words for the everyday version — the one for applications and your website. Juries read dozens of statements: a tight text that says what, how and why lands better than a dense page. Keep a longer version at hand in case a curator asks.
The statement is written in the first person: it's you talking about your work. The biography is written in the third: it's the text others will reuse as is — press kit, exhibition catalogue, a fair's website.
No, and that's deliberate: the statement is the only text no one can write in your place — which is precisely what gives it value. The analysis, however, writes what doesn't need to be you: the titles and descriptions of each work, in two languages. The bulk of the writing disappears; only the text that matters remains.
If foreign buyers or venues may come across your work, yes — your Pro Site and public page exist in both languages. Start with French: as long as English isn't filled in, the French version shows automatically, nothing stays empty.
At every step that changes the work: a new series, a change of medium, an important exhibition. Reread it at least once a year — if it still describes what you used to do, it's time. On MycreArt, updating your profile propagates everywhere at once.
The bio tells in a few sentences; the CV lists facts — exhibitions, awards, press, training. On MycreArt, the CV isn't a text to write: exhibitions, awards and press entered in your profile appear as structured sections on your About page. The bio stays a short text; the track record lives alongside it.
Related guides
These texts feed everything else — here's where they work.
Create your Pro Site
The About and Studio pages, fed by your bio and statement.
Understand the analysis
How MycreArt proposes titles and descriptions from your photos.
PDF catalogues
Your bio opening a portfolio ready to send.
Preparing an exhibition
The complete dossier — the statement is always part of it.
Your texts, written once, everywhere after
Bio, statement and studio intro are entered in your profile — your public page, your site and your catalogues take it from there.