How to write the perfect artist bio

Image by expresswriters from Pixabay

Artists: finding the idea of writing a bio challenging? Head Tyger Martyn Pearce offers some tips.

Writing an artist bio can be daunting. You might find yourself getting stuck on how to distil your years of experience into a few short paragraphs, or struggling to find a structure, or you might just really hate writing about yourself.

If so, this is the blog post for you. 

In it, I’m going to break down a few rules and key pieces of information to follow. It’ll demystify the process of writing for you, give you a guide to structure your writing, and help you avoid some common mistakes.

My background before Tyger was as a journalist and newspaper editor, so I have a lot of experience with writing clear, sharp, and to the point content. But I also bring to this my experience of working with artists through the gallery, and helping them to craft some text which is purposeful, accurate, engaging and clear. 

Some artists, and indeed some other galleries, might give you a very different set of guidelines and have different opinions. And if you’ve already got a way that works for you, then great! But this guide is for those of you that might want some assistance. It should give you all the tools and tips you need to create the perfect artist bio. But if you’re still stuck or want some personal advice or help, reach out to me.

So, let’s get into it.

Who is your audience?

Before you put pen to paper or tap the keyboard in anger, think about who you are writing this for, because your audience will inform your approach. If it’s tricky to narrow it down to one audience, or you’re struggling to work out who the audience will be, then the simple rule of thumb is to ‘kiss’ - Keep It Simple, Stupid! Write a bio that someone outside of the art world will understand, using clear, simple, unambiguous language.

Keeping it simple

It might be tempting to use a lot of art-world terminology or jargonistic language, particularly if you’re keen to demonstrate your skills or experience. But doing so will mean that many people who read your bio won’t fully understand it. Nuance and detail is actually much easier to get across to people when you use clear, simple and unambiguous language.

Plus, if you keep it simple, the reader of your bio will thank you for it (maybe not personally…but almost all things are possible). Nobody likes to read over something where they have to Google words to decipher their meaning. 

Keep your sentences short

A good rule of thumb is that a sentence should contain only one idea. If your sentence contains multiple clauses and commas, you’re asking a lot of the reader to follow along and understand. Full stops are free, and they are your friend. Use them. A comma can often be replaced with a full stop.

Have a clear structure

This is something a lot of people struggle with. Get it wrong, and your bio will be hard to follow for the reader. And if readers find something difficult to follow, they will eventually give up. 

But getting a clear structure isn’t just for the reader’s benefit - it’s also a help to you. It’ll mean you’re much more able to get the key points across in each paragraph, follow a logical progression, and see at the end where you need to edit or add detail.

What does a clear structure look like?

Journalists are taught to write in an ‘inverted pyramid’ structure. That means putting your key information at the top of the piece, and having info of lesser importance in paragraphs below. This is a handy approach for artist bios as well, because it means that you can work with one bio, but easily trim it down for different needs. So if you’ve written a 250-word bio, but someone asks for a 100-word version, you won’t have to agonise on writing new text, you can just cut off paragraphs at the bottom until you hit the desired word length. 

In an artist bio, an example of a clear structure might be:

First paragraph: Who are you, where are you from, what type of art do you create, where did you study art (if you did)?

Second paragraph: Tell the reader more about the art you create, what you’re inspired by, what meanings you are conveying to the viewer.

Third paragraph: Tell the reader about where and how you create the art.

Fourth paragraph: Tell the reader about some of your key shows that you’ve done or are upcoming.

Have different versions

Want to have that feeling of satisfaction about how well prepared you are (rather than a panicked alternative)? Then make yourself two or three different versions of the bio with different word lengths. If you’ve written using the inverted pyramid structure, it’ll be easy for you to cut the full length version down to size. Having a 100-word version, a 250-word version, and a longer version available will save a lot of stress.

First person or third person?

Do you want to write it in first person (Hi, I’m Martyn, a landscape artist from…) or third person (Martyn Pearce is a landscape artist from..)? There is no right or wrong approach here - only personal choice. 

But there are a couple of things to think about. Firstly, you may be asked to supply it in a particular style. At Tyger, we want artist bios in third person, and artist statements (about individual works or collected works in a show) in first person. That’s our requirement, but other places you might have to supply a bio will have their own needs.

Secondly, whichever way you choose, stay consistent. That is, don’t start it in first person, then mid-way through the text switch to third person, or vice versa. 

Adding quotes

If you’ve written it in third person, then you might want to consider adding quotes from you as part of the artist bio. If you’re using them, then put them in the second half of the bio.

Make sure you use double quotation marks, and attribute the first quoted line to you. Subsequent lines don’t need to be attributed if they follow immediately on from the first quote.

Example

“I have always been inspired by the natural world,” says Martyn.

“The shapes, patterns, and colour of the environment fill me with joy - and that’s what I capture in my paintings.”

Other tips and tricks

Don’t fall prey to imposter syndrome. Maybe you really are an emerging artist trying to capture a particular look and hoping that people like your work - but be wary of language that suggests a lack of confidence. Are you an emerging artist, or simply an artist? Are you trying to capture something, or just capturing it? What you do artistically is uniquely you - be proud of that, and let that confidence come through in how you talk about yourself.

Don’t over-capitalise. Proper nouns get capital letters - things like the Australian Parliament. But capital letters should be used sparingly, and only where necessary. 

Lose the ‘that’. ‘That’ is frequently a redundant word in sentences - serving no useful purpose. See if a line you have written with that word in it still makes sense if you take it out. For example: The gallery said that the work was the best that they had ever seen, could be changed to: The gallery said the work was the best they had ever seen. Nothing is lost in that second version, but you have trimmed your word count and made the text sharper.

Be your own editor. Typos, unnecessary words, and poor phrasing creep into everyone’s writing. I’ve been writing professionally for more than 25 years, but I still find errors sneaking in. Try writing your bio one day, then reading it again with a critical eye the next - looking for ways to sharpen the text and remove clutter.

Get a second opinion. Asking someone else to read your artist bio will help. If they don’t understand something you’ve written, then chances are other people will also be stumped by it. If so, that’s your cue to rewrite it.

Finally, remember that writing a bio is something you’ll update over time. People change, grow and progress, and your bio should too. Start with something you’re happy with for now, and check in on it every few months. If it no longer resonates with you, then give it a refresh and an update.

Need more help? Want some personal advice? Reach out to me.