How to Write an Artist Bio: Examples, Templates, and Tips

Your artist bio is your professional introduction. Your artist statement explains the work; your bio explains you: background, training, achievements, and what makes you credible as an artist.

You get asked for one more often than you expect. Gallery submissions, catalog contributor notes, grant applications, press releases, wall labels, panel introductions. Write it properly once, keep a few lengths on hand, and you stop drafting it at midnight the night before a deadline.

Bio lengths

Three versions cover almost every request, and they overlap heavily. Once the medium version exists, the short bio is a trim of it and the long bio is an expansion.

Short bio (50-75 words)

Used on social media profiles, exhibition checklists, catalog contributor notes, and anywhere a brief introduction is all there is room for.

Template: [Name] is a [medium] artist based in [location]. [His/Her/Their] work [brief description]. [Name] has exhibited at [1-2 notable venues] and received [1-2 notable awards/recognition]. [He/She/They] holds [degree] from [school].

Example: "Maria Santos is a mixed-media artist based in Chicago. Her work explores immigrant identity through textile and found objects. Santos has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and Manifest Gallery, and received a 2023 Illinois Arts Council Fellowship. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago."

Medium bio (100-150 words)

Gallery websites, exhibition catalogs, grant applications, and press releases all run at roughly this length. Add exhibition history, awards, collections, or teaching positions.

Example: "James Chen is a sculptor and installation artist based in Los Angeles. His large-scale works investigate the relationship between industrial materials and natural forms, often incorporating salvaged metal, concrete, and living plants.

Chen has exhibited at the Hammer Museum, LACE, and the Torrance Art Museum, with solo presentations at Commonwealth and Council and Charlie James Gallery. His work is held in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Hammer Museum. He received a 2022 California Community Foundation Fellowship and a 2020 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant.

Chen holds an MFA from UCLA and a BFA from CalArts. He teaches sculpture at Otis College of Art and Design."

Long bio (250-400 words)

Reserve this one for your own website, major exhibition catalogs, fellowship applications, and press kits. The extra room goes to context about your practice, influences, critical reception, and publications.

What to include

Every bio, regardless of length, needs your full name as you want to be known professionally, your location (city and state or country), your medium or discipline, your highest degree, and two or three notable exhibitions or achievements.

Beyond that, include what you actually have:

• Awards and grants
• Collections holding your work
• Residencies completed
• Teaching positions
• Publications or press mentions
• Professional affiliations

Leave out your age or birth year unless it is standard in your field. Leave out personal life details that do not bear on the work, and subjective claims like "acclaimed" or "innovative." Exhaustive credits belong on your artist CV, not here. A bio that lists every group show has stopped introducing you and started duplicating a document the reader already has.

What separates a strong bio from a weak one

Lead with your strongest credential

Your first sentence establishes whether the reader keeps going.

Weak: "Jane Smith has been making art since childhood..." Strong: "Jane Smith is a Guggenheim Fellow whose paintings are held in the collections of the Whitney Museum and MoMA PS1."

Write in third person

Professional bios use third person, which reads as more authoritative and is what galleries, catalogs, and press offices expect: "Sarah Johnson is a painter based in New York," never "I am a painter based in New York." First person belongs in your artist statement.

Be specific, and let facts do the praising

Vague claims waste the little space you have.

Vague: "Her work has been exhibited widely." Specific: "Her work has been exhibited at the New Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, and SculptureCenter."

The same rule kills adjectives. "He is a highly accomplished sculptor" asks the reader to take your word for it. "His sculptures are held in the collections of SFMOMA and the Walker Art Center" does not ask for anything.

Keep it current

Review the bio quarterly, and revise it whenever you finish a major exhibition, receive an award or grant, enter a collection, or change cities. Venues copy whatever you send them and reuse it for years, so a stale bio stays in circulation long after it stopped being true.

Bios go stale faster than CVs because they live in more places. Keeping the bio, the CV, and the portfolio in one record is the reason the Artsume CV builder reads from the same profile your public page does. Set the profile up once and the bio you send a gallery is the bio a curator finds when they search your name.

Common mistakes

Templates by career stage

Emerging artist

Early in a practice the bio carries more weight than the credentials do, so lead with medium and location and name the training and programs you have completed. Most opportunities aimed at emerging artists ask for a bio at this length.

"[Name] is a [medium] artist based in [location]. [His/Her/Their] work [brief description of themes or approach]. [Name] has exhibited at [venues] and was a [residency or program] participant. [He/She/They] holds [degree] from [school]."

Mid-career artist

"[Name] is a [medium] artist whose work [brief description]. Based in [location], [he/she/they] has exhibited at [notable venues including museums if applicable]. [His/Her/Their] work is held in [collections]. [Name] has received [awards/grants]. [He/She/They] holds [degrees] and [teaches at/is represented by] [institution/gallery]."

Established artist

"[Name] is a [medium] artist known for [signature aspect of practice]. [His/Her/Their] work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at [major museums] and is held in the permanent collections of [major institutions]. [Name] has received [major awards] and [fellowships]. [He/She/They] is represented by [galleries]. [Name] lives and works in [location]."

Where the bio ends up

Each destination has a house length, and knowing which one you are writing for saves a rewrite.

A gallery reads your bio inside a submission packet, alongside images and a CV; the gallery outreach guide covers what belongs in the rest of that packet. Editors pull the medium bio straight out of a press release without changing a word, which means the version attached to a press pitch is the version that gets printed. On your own site the bio usually sits on an About page beside the work, where the portfolio website guide has more on how the pages fit together.

One caution: when an application asks for a CV, a bio is not a substitute. The two documents answer different questions, and an arts and cultural CV records things a bio never mentions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Write it once, keep the three lengths current, and let the achievements do the arguing. Save the poetry for your artist statement.

Ready to build your professional presence? Create your free Artsume profile to store your bio, CV, and portfolio together.