Artist CV template
The sections Canadian galleries and juries expect on an artist CV, in order, with rules for listing shows, residencies, grants and collections, plus a template.
An artist CV is not a job résumé
An artist CV is a factual record of your professional art activity: exhibitions, residencies, grants, collections and publications. It leaves out unrelated jobs, skills lists and personal statements. Juries, curators and dealers skim it to answer a few questions quickly: where you have shown, who has supported your work, and how active you are now.
Length depends on the use. Many applications cap it; the Ontario Arts Council’s visual artist creation grants, for example, accept a résumé of three pages at most and do not accept brochures, clippings or reviews as attachments. Keep a complete master CV for yourself and cut a shorter version for each application.
The sections, in order
Canadian galleries and juries expect roughly this order. Leave out any section you do not have yet; never pad.
- Name and contact: name, city and province, email, website. A phone number and street address are optional.
- Born / lives and works: optional, but useful when an opportunity has regional criteria.
- Education: degrees and diplomas, with institution and year. Mentorships and workshops can go here or under professional development.
- Solo exhibitions
- Two-person exhibitions (optional; otherwise include them under group exhibitions)
- Group exhibitions
- Screenings, performances or festivals (for media and performance artists)
- Residencies
- Awards and grants
- Commissions and public art
- Collections: public collections first, then corporate.
- Bibliography: writing about you and your work.
- Publications and writing by you
- Talks, lectures and teaching
- Professional activities: juries, boards, programming committees, curatorial projects.
- Representation: your dealer, if you have one.
Within each section, list entries in reverse chronological order, most recent first.
Solo, two-person and group shows
The convention on CVs is simple:
- Solo: only your work in an exhibition, or in a clearly separate gallery or room within a larger venue.
- Two-person: you and one other artist.
- Group: three or more artists.
The CARFAC-RAAV fee schedule uses a related but stricter test for fees: it treats any exhibition with two or more artists as a group show, and pays less per artist as the group gets larger. Your CV can still list a two-person show separately.
Be honest about what kind of show it was. An art fair booth goes under its own heading or under group exhibitions with the gallery named. A co-op members’ show is not a juried exhibition. An online-only exhibition should say so. A show you paid to be in, at a gallery whose income comes from artist fees, does your CV more harm than good; see how to spot a vanity gallery.
How to list each kind of entry
Exhibitions: year, title in italics, venue, city, province or country. Add “(curated by …)” or “(juried by …)” if it helps. Add “(touring)” with later venues indented below.
Residencies: year, program name, host organization, city, country. Add the length if it was substantial, for example six weeks.
Grants: year, funder, program. For example, “Canada Council for the Arts, Explore and Create: Artistic Creation”. Amounts are optional, and many artists leave them out.
Awards and prizes: year, award name, organization. Note if you were shortlisted rather than the winner.
Collections: list only organizations that own your work, by purchase or by a donation they accepted. A private collector should not be named without permission; “private collections in Canada and the US” is enough.
Bibliography: author, “title of article,” publication, date, page numbers or URL. Reviews, catalogue essays and interviews belong here. Your own writing goes under publications.
Talks: year, type (artist talk, panel, lecture), host, city.
A plain-text template
Copy this into any word processor and replace the bracketed text. Delete any section you do not need.
[FIRST NAME LAST NAME]
[City, Province] | [email] | [website]
Born [City, Year]. Lives and works in [City], [Province].
EDUCATION
[Year] [Degree, Discipline], [Institution], [City]
[Year] [Diploma or Certificate], [Institution], [City]
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
[Year] [Exhibition Title], [Venue], [City, Province]
[Year] [Exhibition Title], [Venue], [City, Province]
TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
[Year] [Exhibition Title] (with [Artist Name]), [Venue], [City, Province]
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
[Year] [Exhibition Title], curated by [Name], [Venue], [City, Province]
[Year] [Exhibition Title], juried by [Name], [Venue], [City, Province]
SCREENINGS AND PERFORMANCES
[Year] [Work Title], [Festival or Program], [Venue], [City, Country]
RESIDENCIES
[Year] [Program Name], [Host Organization], [City, Country] ([length])
AWARDS AND GRANTS
[Year] [Funder], [Program or Award Name]
[Year] [Award Name], [Organization] (shortlist)
COMMISSIONS AND PUBLIC ART
[Year] [Work Title], commissioned by [Organization], [Location]
COLLECTIONS
[Institution Name], [City]
Private collections in [Countries]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[Year] [Author], "[Article Title]," [Publication], [Date], [pages or URL]
PUBLICATIONS
[Year] [Your Article or Book Title], [Publisher or Publication]
TALKS AND TEACHING
[Year] [Artist talk / Panel / Workshop], [Host], [City]
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
[Year] Jury member, [Program], [Organization]
[Year] Board member, [Organization]
REPRESENTATION
[Gallery Name], [City]
Formatting tips
- Use one clean font, consistent spacing and the same date format throughout.
- Put the year on the left so a reader can scan your activity at a glance.
- Use italics for exhibition and work titles, and quotation marks for article titles.
- Add “Selected” to a heading when you are showing only part of a long list.
- Save as a PDF named with your surname, such as lastname-cv-2026.pdf.
- Update it every time something happens; trying to reconstruct a year of activity later is miserable.
A note for US readers: the order and conventions are nearly identical. US applications more often expect “Selected” lists on a one or two page CV, and CaFÉ calls may ask you to paste the text rather than upload a file.
Frequently asked questions
- How long should an artist CV be?
As long as your record requires for your master copy, but trimmed to the limit for each application, often two or three pages. The Ontario Arts Council, for example, caps résumés at three pages for its visual artist creation grants.
- Does a two-person show count as a solo show?
No. List it as a two-person exhibition, or under group exhibitions. A solo show contains only your work.
- Should I include student shows?
Early in your career, yes, including graduating exhibitions. Drop them as your professional record grows.
- Can I list private collectors by name?
Only with their permission. “Private collections in Canada” is the usual way to note private sales without naming buyers.
Sources
- Visual Artists Creation Projects, Ontario Arts Council. Read 2026-10-19.
- Section 1: 2026 Exhibition and Screening Royalty Schedule, CARFAC-RAAV Minimum Recommended Fee Schedule (definitions of solo and group exhibitions). Read 2026-10-19.
- Explore and Create, Canada Council for the Arts. Read 2026-10-19.
- CaFÉ, Creative West. Read 2026-10-19.