Hello dear readers and subscribers.
In this video, I'm going to show you how you can write a very effective artist biography in just a couple of minutes.
Artist biographies are very important because it is the central piece of information, the central text for external communication or whenever someone is interested to share a bit more information about the work to support the visual that they get to see.
And it's very important to get this right, because if you bore them here, they will most likely no longer be interested.
The artist biography, especially the first few sentences of an artist biography, is a little bit like an elevator pitch.
You get your shot.
You get three sentences that people who are interested have, that you have their attention.
And you simply want to deliver what they're looking for.
They want to know a little bit more what it is made of, what it is about, and simply have an understanding of who the artist is.
However, what we see with most biographies that are being written is that they don't do any of these three things.
Instead they are overly poetic, very vague, generic chat, GPT descriptions um, overblown language, sharing one's life story, inventing new isms, new art movements that do not actually exist, to kind of sell or make it sound more important than it actually is.
Inventing meaning instead of discussing the work, which is what they're looking for, then it's very difficult to maintain that spark and to fuel it.
So that's kind of the role of the artist biography, and it's very important to get this part right, not only for people who are visiting your website, for instance, or looking for a bit of more information about your work, but also, for instance, for applications.
That's also the information they're looking for.
And if we start to see those generic and vague statements that we see all too often, then it doesn't really help you or them in any way or form.
So today we're going to solve that issue.
We're going to have a look at some examples of what a good artist biography is, and then we're simply going to teach you how to create one yourself.
Now, in a nutshell, an artist biography is a text written in the third person about an artist, introducing the artist, what they do, what they are known for, followed by a very brief discussion of the subject matter and then, most likely in the final paragraph, a brief recital of the artist's most important achievement, so that they kind of have an understanding at what level the artist is at the moment.
However, please note that, depending on your career path, this artist biography can be a little bit different.
For instance, if you're an artist who is pursuing gallery representation in the contemporary art world, Then the tone needs to be rather formal neutral, perhaps sometimes a bit more academic, and always in third person.
Whereas if you are pursuing a career, for instance, in the decorative art world, but working with galleries or even selling the work yourself, then it can be a bit more conversational, a bit more accessible, a bit more direct and easy to consume.
And then if you are, for instance, an artist who is only selling directly through the webshop, in a very accessible manner, very accessible art, something that is very decorative and affordable, then you can definitely write the artist's biography in the first person as well, because you're allowed to be a bit more personal.
Getting the tone right is very important.
And to understand the tone, it really helps to read a couple of examples.
So perhaps let's start with doing just that.
I randomly browsed onto David Zwirner's website, had a look at Sacha Gordon, whose work I really enjoy, and here you can see that the first paragraph, which is the most important one it's what we'll start reading does exactly what one expects of an artist's biography.
In her luminous and hyper-realistic paintings, Sacha Gordon often renders her own likeness, conveying the self and its many guises through translucent layers of oils in electric hues.
Executed with technical precision and rigor, the artist's visceral compositions treat her own corporal form as a kind of unorthodox avatar that communicates subjective psychological experience.
So in just three sentences no, excuse me, in just two sentences we know that these are hyper realistic paintings.
So figurative paintings um translucent layer of oil, so you know it's oil painting, Electric hue, so we know it's a very vibrant visual language.
Technical precision, so it's more precise and calculated rather than expressive.
And then also a little bit more about the subject, so her own likeness.
And also the subject matter, the subjective psychological experience.
So this is a very good example of exactly what the artist biography should do in that very first paragraph.
Another artist biography from another artist that i really like at hauser and worth nicholas party.
Born in Lausanne in 1980, Partey is a figurative painter who has achieved critical admiration for his familiar yet unsettling landscapes, portraits and still-lifes that simultaneously celebrate and challenge conventions of representational painting.
His works are primarily created in soft pastel, an idiosyncratic choice of medium in the 21st century and one that allows for exceptional degrees of intensity and fluidity in his depictions of objects both natural and man-made.
Transforming these objects into abstracted biomorphic states.
Barty suggests deeper connections and meanings.
His unique visual language has coalesced in a universe of fantastical characters and motifs where perspective is heightened and scooped to uncanny effect.
Once more the same elements.
Who he is, what he does a figurative painter depicting landscapes portraits, still lifes using soft pastels.
So the actual materials and then also a little bit the visual language abstracted biomorphic shapes suggesting something deeper, and the uncanny.
We conclude with another example at Lisson Gallery with Fred Sandbeck.
The American artist Fred Sandbeck worked with elastic cord and acrylic yarn to delineate or bifurcate three-dimensional space, creating room-filling volumetric forms using the most minimal of means.
By stretching single strands of yarn point to point, to create geometric figures.
Sandbeck's near intangible objects nevertheless amounted to precise and subtle delineations of pictorial planes and architectural volume.
So here, once more, the artist is introduced, describe what materials are being used and what the artist does with it, what he achieves with it with it.
I would argue that this first paragraph is the most important one and it can also be used very often as a standalone text.
In fact, if you are pursuing career in the decorative art world, you can actually stick to just this single paragraph.
Being concise is good.
If we also have a look at, for instance, the biographies on artsy, most often these are just that very first paragraph.
The second paragraph is sometimes to add a bit more depth to the biography.
Here some individual works can be discussed and some important series, or dig a little bit deeper in the subject matter.
But very important with discussing subject matter is do not invent meaning when it isn't necessarily there.
Don't feel like you're obligated to have this deeper meaning in the work.
If it's a material inquiry, mention that it's a material inquiry.
If it's a process-based practice, mention that it's a process-based practice without inventing some philosophical narrative that isn't there.
And, also important, try to keep it a little bit more open-ended.
Very often artists feel like they have to answer all the questions, say the art is about this or the art is about that.
The art is what it is and it can be ambiguous and the viewer can see something in it for themselves.
So keep it open.
It's sometimes better to hint at possible analogies for interpretation than giving a definitive interpretation, and that needs to be adopted by the reader.
Because if that does not correspond with what they were intrigued by and got them to read that text, then it can actually be kind of a turn-off in a certain way.
The third paragraph is the most boring one and I would only recommend using this paragraph if you are pursuing a career in the contemporary art world, and sometimes in the contemporary art world with very established artists.
This is the only paragraph they use to be a bit more elusive and mysterious, which is where they recite important biographic information, their professional background and education, which important exhibitions they did, in which collections they featured, what awards they have won, what residencies they participated in or what publications they have.
Now, if you do not have a lot of notable biographic information in terms of exhibitions and collections, then perhaps it is better for now to omit this part.
Now, how to create one?
Very simple.
You can use the structure that we have discussed here and is visible on screen.
You can use some of the examples, or other examples you can find at other galleries, as a benchmark or a reference.
Many people also ask me, can I use ChatGPT to write my artist biography?
And the answer is yes and no.
No, if you simply ask it to write it about your work and don't give it any original information whatsoever, then it will just result in very vague generic statements, and ChatGPT has also a language that is very recognizable.
Yes, if you do give it enough information and simply use ChatGPT as a tool to get to a finished and polished end result that is written in correct language, good spelling grammar, etc.
I think for that purpose ChatGPT is perfect.
But first do the thinking and writing yourself.
This is something we also did another video on.
If you let ChatGPT do the thinking, then you're missing out an important part of thinking about your own work and being in control of the narrative that circulates and is associated with your work.
Because this text is what will circulate and will be read.
We actually use ChatGPT in our artist biography generation tool.
So this is another way to generate this biography.
I will link to it in the description below, which is actually simply asking what information you should give ChatGPT, and then, with a prompt, we can create a text that just does exactly what an artist biography needs to do.
So those are the main options.
If you do not have an artist biography yet, this is your call to create one.
If you have an artist biography, critically reflect upon the key mistakes and the structure that we've discussed in this video and if it lives up to that expectation.
And then also, I warmly invite you to have a look at our other tools.
At our advice for artists section at contemporaryartissuecom, we have a complete bundle with, at the moment, 13 tools.
Thank you so much for tuning in today.
Feel free to watch our video that discusses writing and art further the power of writing, or why all artists should write about their work.
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