Artist Bio

WHO ARE YOU? WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? WHERE ARE YOU GOING?
What is an artist’s biography?
 An artist’s biography is a one or two paragraph statement that
provides useful background information to viewers, jurors, collectors,
galleries, curators and grantors.
 All these people need to know about your career achievements
and how you as a person connect to your work. While you will likely
discuss your creative work briefly, this is NOT an artist statement.
 You need an artist biography to:
 promote your art on your website and social media platforms
 Provide for press releases
 Add to grant, residency, workshop proposals
 Form part of an exhibition catalog or brochure
 Provide to any gallery or art center showing your work
What to include?
You don’t need all of these – just the most relevant items.

 Where are you from? Where do you live currently?

 How did your interest in art develop?
 Where did you study art (or are you a self-taught artist)?
 What art media are you most connected to? What media do you
typically work in?
 What major exhibits have you participated in?
 Is your art in any private or public collections?
 What awards and honors have you earned?
 Have you served in other art-related capacities (i.e., on a board,
curating an exhibit, being a juror?
 How did your interest in a particular theme/concept emerge?
Guidelines:
 Keep your biography to 250 words or less (approximately ½ page)
 Write in the 3rd person (“he”/”she”/”they” rather than “I”)
 Begin with your name, background information and possibly
medium.
 Write only about personal experiences that are relevant to your
career or artistic vision.
 Choose the best achievements – don’t create a laundry list.
 Avoid the use of jargon or difficult vocabulary.
 Keep paragraphs short for easy reading.
 Individualize your artist biography for different purposes.
 Understand the audience and adjust your biography accordingly.
Let’s look at 3 examples of 3 very
different artists.
 We can see that each emphasizes different aspects of their
biography that best relate to their creative work and to what they
want to say with their bio.
 There is no one way or one order in which to write your bio!
 Common information found in artist bios:
 Medium
 Geographic location
 Art-related jobs or activities
 Major art achievements (prizes, significant exhibits, collections)
Gregory Amenoff - Biography

 Gregory Amenoff is a painter who lives in New York City and Ulster County, New
York. He is the recipient of numerous awards from organizations including the
American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Endowment for the Arts, New
York State Council on the Arts and the Tiffany Foundation. He has had over fifty
one-person exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout the United States
and Europe. His work is in the permanent collections of more than thirty
museums, including the Whitney Museum of America Art, the Museum of Fine
Arts in Boston, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Metropolitan
Museum of Art.

Amenoff served as President of the National Academy of Design from 2001-

2005. He is a founding board member of the CUE Art Foundation in New York
City and serves as the CUE Art Foundation's Curator Governor. Amenoff has
taught at Columbia for the last eighteen years, where he holds the Eve and
Herman Gelman Chair of Visual Arts and is currently the Chair of the Visual Arts
Division in the School of the Arts. He is currently the Vice-President of the
National Academy.
Gregory Amenoff

NOTE:
 Amenoff begins with his principal medium, painting, and
geographic location.
 He then lists his major achievements (for example, “over 50 one-
person exhibitions)
 He finishes with his current art-related employment and activity.
 He cherry picks his best accomplishments from his CV. We get the
impression that Mr. Amenoff is a big deal!
Jeremy Randall
Jeremy Randall received his B.F.A. from Syracuse University and his M.F.A.
in ceramics from the University of Florida, and has been making his hand
built pottery professionally since 2005. He currently lives in Tully, New York,
where he owns and operates his home studio. Jeremy is a visiting instructor
of art at Cazenovia College in Cazenovia NY, and an adjunct professor of
art at Syracuse University.
Jeremy has been involved in numerous national and international shows, is
represented by Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, MT, The Clay Studio
Philadelphia, and the Society of Arts And Crafts in Boston, among others.
Jeremy also has work included in the permanent collections of Robert and
Jane Myerhoff in Baltimore, Bailey Pottery Equipment
permanent Collection, and the Southern Illinois University Museum in
Carbondale, Illinois.
​
Jeremy Randall

Note:
 Randall begins with his education and follows with his medium,
hand-built ceramics.
 We learn that he operates a studio and is locally employed, so he
has given us information about his geographic location.
 His main achievements, according to this statement, are having his
work sold in galleries across the United States, and having his work
become part of several significant art collections.
Peggy Diggs

Peggy Diggs is an artist who, for four decades, has made public work that
addresses contemporary social issues such as domestic violence, contemporary
life, and race. With a BA from George Washington University and an MFA from
Cranbrook Academy of Art, Diggs was trained as a printmaker but in order to reach
a broader public, she has utilized forms such as junk mail, flags, milk cartons, and
billboards. She often collaborates with specific communities to produce site-
responsive, issue-specific projects that are relevant to a unique set of conditions.
Through these public works, she has printed on money and then put it into
circulation, given collapsible furniture to formerly homeless seniors, and distributed
napkins in college eating facilities.
Diggs’ work has been exhibited and collected throughout the United States,
featured at institutions such as Mass MoCa, Project Row Houses, and the Museum
of Modern Art, among others. She has received broad support for her work, most
notably from Creative Capital, National Endowment for the Arts, Lower Manhattan
Cultural Council, and Creative Time.
Diggs has taught at Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design, The School of
the Art Institute of Chicago, Williams College and Berkshire County Community
College. In 2013 she moved to Galisteo, NM, and plans to stay and work there
forever
Peggy Diggs

 Note:
 Diggs starts with the meaning of her work: its underlying concepts
 She then discusses her education and initial medium
 She explains her varied media and strategies used
 Then she discusses her major achievements (for example, exhibits
across the United States)
 More achievements: Major awards and grants
 She discusses her art-related employment
 And she finishes up with her geographic location (“she plans to stay
and work there forever”!)
Another approach

 We can see glimmers of the different personalities of each of the 3

artists featured here – but maybe they could be even more personal or
quirky?

 https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2015/09/17/44116600
7/why-cant-artist-bios-be-better
 The author of this op-ed suggests we use the artist bio not as a mini-
resume, but rather as an insightful way to introduce yourself and BRAND
YOURSELF.
 “Why should we listen to you, whether you're an international soloist or
still in school? Think of this as a chance to craft a compelling narrative in
a truncated form. Who was your inspiration? Who was your teacher?
What other music do you listen to, aside from your own repertoire?”
(written with musician bios in mind but applicable to us all)