How to write an artist statement

What a statement is for

An artist statement is a short piece of writing, in your own voice, that tells a reader what you make, how you make it and why. It goes with grant applications, exhibition proposals, open calls, residency applications, your website and sometimes the wall of a show.

Different readers use it differently. A jury reads it in under a minute while looking at your images, to check that the work and the thinking line up. A curator reads it to see whether your concerns fit a program. A visitor reads it to find a way into the work. The statement serves all of them if it is clear.

It is not the same as:

• A bio, which is a third-person summary of your career: where you trained, where you have shown, where you live.
• A project description, which explains one specific proposal: what the exhibition or project would be and what it needs.
• A CV, which lists facts. See our artist CV template.

How long it should be

Keep three versions ready:

• Short (50 to 100 words): for social media, a website header, a group show handout.
• Standard (150 to 300 words): the version most calls want. One page, double-spaced, at most.
• Long (up to about 500 words): for grant applications or a solo exhibition, where you have room for context.

When a call sets a word or character limit, treat it as a hard ceiling. Application systems often cut text off at the limit, and juries notice applicants who ignore instructions.

A simple structure

Most good statements answer four questions, roughly in this order:

1. What do you make? Name the medium and the form in plain words: oil paintings on panel, single-channel video, large woven installations.
2. How do you make it? The process, materials or methods that matter to the result. Only the parts a viewer would want to know.
3. What is it about? The subject, question or experience that drives the work. Be specific: a particular place, material, history or idea.
4. Why does it matter, or where does it sit? One or two sentences of context: what you hope a viewer notices, or what conversation the work belongs to.

You do not need headings or a fixed order. But if a reader finishes your statement and cannot say what your work looks like, start again.

Voice

• Write in the first person and the present tense. “I paint”, not “the artist explores”.
• Use words you would say out loud to a curious friend at an opening.
• Prefer concrete nouns to abstract ones. “Salt, rust and the shoreline at low tide” tells a reader more than “materiality and liminality”.
• Let one or two specific details carry the idea. A precise detail persuades better than a broad claim.

What to leave out

• Your life story, unless it is the subject of the work.
• “Ever since I was a child I have loved art.”
• Big claims about challenging, interrogating or redefining things. Show what the work does instead.
• Lists of theorists, or jargon you would not use in conversation.
• Adjectives praising your own work (powerful, striking, unique). Leave those to reviewers.
• Exhibition history and awards; those belong on your CV.

Revising

1. Write a messy first draft fast. Talk it through aloud first if writing is hard, then transcribe.
2. Cut it by a third. Most first drafts improve when you remove the warm-up sentences.
3. Read it aloud. Anything you stumble over, rewrite.
4. Test it on a non-artist. Ask them to describe your work back to you. If they cannot, the statement is not doing its job yet.
5. Check it against the images. The statement should describe the work you are showing, not the work you plan to make next year.
6. Tailor it. Adjust emphasis for each call, and revisit the whole statement at least once a year as the work changes.

Two example statements

The two statements below were written for this guide. The artists are invented; use them to see the structure, not as text to copy.

Example 1: a painter (about 130 words)

I paint laundromats, bus shelters and hospital waiting rooms in the hour before dawn, when they are lit but empty. I work in oil on small birch panels, building each surface in thin layers so the fluorescent light seems to sit on top of the paint. I make pencil studies on site, then finish the paintings in the studio from memory and notes rather than photographs, which lets me keep what I felt in the room and lose what the camera insists on. These are places most of us pass through without looking. I am interested in how they hold traces of whoever just left: a coat on a chair, a transfer on the floor, a television still talking. The paintings ask you to linger in rooms that were built for leaving.

Example 2: a media artist (about 140 words)

I make single-channel videos and multi-speaker sound installations from recordings people forget they made: voicemails, answering-machine tapes and the audio tracks of home movies. I gather them through public calls and from my own family, with consent from everyone who can be heard. In the studio I slow, loop and layer the recordings until most of the words fall away and what remains is breath, room tone and the hum of a refrigerator in 1997. In the gallery, speakers hang at ear height through a darkened space, so visitors walk through the sound as if moving through a house. The work is about what a household sounds like when nobody is performing for the microphone. It is also about who keeps these recordings, who throws them out, and what we lose when the tape is gone.

Notice what both examples do: the first sentence says what the work is, the middle explains process in a way a viewer can picture, and the ending gives the reason, without theory or praise.

When someone asks you to write

If a gallery asks you to write new text for its exhibition materials, that is work. The CARFAC-RAAV fee schedule lists artist statements and catalogue texts among the writing tasks artists may be paid for, and notes that most artists writing on a freelance basis charge between 50 cents and $1 per word. See what Canadian galleries pay artists.

Frequently asked questions

How long should an artist statement be?

Usually 150 to 300 words, unless the call sets a different limit. Keep a 50 to 100 word version for short formats and a longer one for grants.

Should an artist statement be in the first or third person?

First person. Statements are in your own voice; your bio is the piece written in the third person.

Can I use the same statement for every application?

Keep a core version, but adjust it for each call so the emphasis matches what the gallery, jury or residency is looking for.

What is the difference between an artist statement and a project description?

The statement describes your practice as a whole. A project description explains one proposed exhibition or project, including what it needs to happen.

Sources

• Section 4: 2026 Artist Professional Services Fee Schedule, CARFAC-RAAV Minimum Recommended Fee Schedule. Read 2026-10-19.
• Visual Artists Creation Projects, Ontario Arts Council. Read 2026-10-19.