When writing an artist statement it should be short and to the point. Artist statements need to be about what inspired you and/or why you made certain decisions. Don’t make it long and complicated. It should hold your audience’s attention from start to finish.
Your artist statement should never be an afterthought! Take your time, make it informative, and use it as a tool to help your audience dive deeper into your work.
Include:
- Why you decided to create this series.
- What motivated you to dedicate your time, talent, and energy into making this group of work?
- Compelling facts or research about other artists you found that influenced your project
- The conversation you’d like to prompt with your art and/or a relevant story or personal experience
Exclude:
- Don’t use language that is confusing or difficult to follow. Big words needed for big ideas are fine, but don’t just use them for the sake of complexity
- Don’t include unnecessary, dead-end adjectives, like “interesting,” or “important” to describe the subject of a sentence.
- Don’t use phrases like “in my opinion,” “I might,” etc. — It’s called an artist statement for a reason
- Don’t clump everything together into long lists, chunky paragraphs, and run-on sentences
- Don’t send off your statement without reading it aloud and asking others for feedback
TAP EXAMPLEs
