HOW to WRITE a STRONG ARTISTIC STATEMENT?

This cheat sheet will help you to define your individual statement for you as an artist or for a particular project that you are working on. Answer the questions below and edit them into one text. Your statement is ready. Need more inspiration? Refer to the texts from our reading list.

Please answer the following questions about your creative practice:

What is my art space/practice is renowned for (performance, solo show/collective, site specific, performative arts, video art, emerging /mid- career/established artist)?

What is my strongest artwork (best-known, won prizes, visibility on social media)? N.B. for visual artists – ALSO explain briefly the concept; for dealers and curators – ALSO add who is the strongest artist I represented so far?

Tell us about the relationship between your concept and materials choices in the execution phase

 What is my new goal?

Share a cultural, social, scientific theme that had recently stimulated your curiosity, and that you would like to explore and contribute to

Define briefly your artistic field of primary interest today (technique movement /style / artist name)  

Recall the most relevant event/situation/ reading ( national, international or local) you’ve been experiencing lately

What do you consider the most compelling challenge for contemporary art scene?

Pick 5 artistic works that you admired in the last five years, and try to find similarities between them ( concept wise and material-wise), Describe each artist's production through the combination: material +subject/concept+medium, and invite the other colleagues to guess.

Example 1. globalisation +Chinese pearl+sneezing+video= Mika Rottemberg

Example 2. African continent feminism+collage+female organs = Wangechi Mutu

Example 3. obscenity of the war+pornography+tape site specific=Tomas Hirschorn

Write your own statement, your own thoughts and ideas. Include the answers above into your statement. Length of the text: 200 words max. Text style: The text is preferable to be written in the third person, avoiding the use of bold text, number or bullet lists.

You are constantly evolving as an artist so is your artistic statement. Do not be afraid to amend it if you feel it does not represent who you are as artist anymore. This is a wonderful thing about creative journey – you are always developing and progressing.

We do not recommend using ChatGPT, at least in the beginning. Trust us, you will deliver a much better quality if the statement comes directly from you. Later, you can ask ChatGPT to edit the text it if you wish.

Reading  list:

1.Art-Write: The Writing Guide for Visual Artists by Vicki Krohn Amorose 

The book offers a step-by-step approach to create a professional artist statement, with thinking and writing exercises to ease the process and develop authentic and clear content.

2. Akademie X: Lessons in Art + Life, by Marina Abramovic (Author), Olafur Eliasson, Dan Graham, Studio Raqs Media Collective, Phaidon, 2015
Assembled from the wisdom of 36 legendary art teachers - all of them artists or critics at the top of their field - Akademie X: Lessons in Art + Life is an ideal curriculum for the aspiring artist.

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