How to Write an Artist Statement Without Sounding Like a Robot

Artist statements have a reputation for being unnecessarily complicated.

You know the ones.

Three paragraphs in and you're still trying to work out what the artist actually makes.

Your artist statement doesn't need to sound like that.

Its job is simple:

Help someone understand your work.

Start with what you actually make

Before getting philosophical, tell us what we're looking at.

What medium do you use?

What subjects do you explore?

What does your work generally look like?

For example:

“My practice explores botanical forms through detailed painting and large-scale floral compositions.”

Immediately, we know something about the work.

What are you interested in?

Now go deeper.

What ideas keep appearing in your practice?

Maybe you're interested in memory, identity, nature, domestic spaces, sustainability, architecture, femininity, colour, nostalgia, place or cultural history.

You don't need to cover every thought you've ever had.

Focus on the ideas that genuinely connect your work.

Why do you make it?

This is often where the interesting part lives.

Why are you drawn to these subjects?

Why these materials?

Why do you keep returning to this particular idea?

Your answer doesn't need to involve an enormous life-changing revelation.

Sometimes you're fascinated by something because you find it beautiful, strange, overlooked or worth examining.

That's enough.

Talk about your process

If your process is important to understanding the work, include it.

Perhaps you collect materials, work from photographs, conduct research, build layers slowly, use traditional techniques or deliberately work with unpredictable materials.

Explain how the making contributes to the meaning of the work.

Write like a human

You don't need to use words like:

“Juxtaposition.”

“Interrogates.”

“Liminality.”

“Discourse.”

Unless, of course, those are genuinely the clearest words for what you're trying to say.

Your statement should sound intelligent without becoming inaccessible.

Imagine explaining your practice to an interested person standing beside you at an exhibition.

Start there.

Be specific

“This work explores the human experience.”

Okay.

But which part?

Specificity makes writing stronger.

What experiences?

What questions?

What environments?

What relationships?

What materials?

Give the reader something tangible.

Artist statement vs artist bio

These are different things.

Your artist bio is about you.

Your background, career, exhibitions, training, achievements and where you're based.

Your artist statement is about the work.

What you make, why you make it and the ideas behind it.

You will often need both.

A simple structure

If you're completely stuck, try this:

Paragraph one: What do you make and what does your practice explore?

Paragraph two: Why are you interested in these ideas and how do they appear in the work?

Paragraph three: How do your materials, techniques or processes contribute to the work?

Then edit.

And edit again.

Read it out loud

This is one of the easiest ways to find awkward writing.

If you would never say a sentence out loud, consider whether it needs to be rewritten.

Your statement should sound like you — just the polished version.

Don't write what you think a gallery wants to hear

Your statement doesn't need to make your practice sound more complicated than it is.

Clear thinking is much more impressive than complicated language.

Tell us what you make.

Tell us what you're interested in.

Tell us why it matters to you.

That's the foundation of a good artist statement.

The Creative Toolkit is a growing collection of practical resources from The Rundle Collective, created to help emerging creatives navigate the business, opportunities and realities of building a creative practice.