Crafting an Effective Art Statement

An artist statement is a written description of your artistic practice. It can be used to accompany your artwork in a gallery or exhibition, or to submit to a grant or fellowship program. An effective artist statement will help viewers understand your work and why you create it.

Here are some tips for crafting an effective artist statement:

Be specific. Don’t just say that you are a painter or a sculptor. What kind of work do you make? What materials do you use? What are your influences?
Be personal. Your artist statement should reflect your own unique voice and perspective. Don’t be afraid to share your personal experiences and emotions in your writing.
Be concise. Your artist statement should be no more than a few pages long. Get to the point quickly and clearly.
Be honest. Your artist statement should be an honest reflection of your work and your artistic process. Don’t try to be someone you’re not.
Here is an example of an effective artist statement:

I am a painter who works primarily in acrylics. My paintings are often large and abstract, and they explore themes of memory, loss, and identity. I am drawn to the expressive possibilities of paint, and I use color, texture, and form to create works that are both visually arresting and emotionally resonant.

My work is influenced by a variety of sources, including my own personal experiences, the work of other artists, and the natural world. I am particularly interested in the way that memory can be both a source of pain and a source of beauty. My paintings often depict landscapes that are both familiar and strange, and they invite viewers to explore their own memories and emotions.

I believe that art has the power to connect people and to make them think about the world in new ways. I hope that my work will inspire viewers to reflect on their own lives and experiences.

This artist statement is specific, personal, concise, and honest. It provides a clear and concise overview of the artist’s work, and it invites viewers to explore the work in more depth.

An artist statement is a written description of your artistic practice. It can be used to accompany your artwork in a gallery or exhibition, or to submit to a grant or fellowship program. An effective artist statement will help viewers understand your work and why you create it.

Here is an example of an effective artist statement:

I am a painter who works primarily in acrylics. My paintings are often large and abstract, and they explore themes of memory, loss, and identity. I am drawn to the expressive possibilities of paint, and I use color, texture, and form to create works that are both visually arresting and emotionally resonant.

My work is influenced by a variety of sources, including my own personal experiences, the work of other artists, and the natural world. I am particularly interested in the way that memory can be both a source of pain and a source of beauty. My paintings often depict landscapes that are both familiar and strange, and they invite viewers to explore their own memories and emotions.

I believe that art has the power to connect people and to make them think about the world in new ways. I hope that my work will inspire viewers to reflect on their own lives and experiences.

This artist statement is specific, personal, concise, and honest. It provides a clear and concise overview of the artist’s work, and it invites viewers to explore the work in more depth.

Writing an Effective Art Statement: 18 Essential Guidelines

Writing an engaging and concise artist statement is vital for effectively communicating your artistic vision to the world. To help you master this skill, we have compiled a list of ten essential guidelines to enhance the quality and impact of your art statement.

#1 Advice: Get help from an art critic or a curator.

How, What, Why

The “how” of your artist statement should explain your artistic process. How do you create your work? Explain the methods, materials, and mediums you use to bring your artistic vision to life. Discuss any unique approaches or innovative techniques and creative skills that set your work apart. By sharing insights into your creative process, you offer readers a glimpse into the craftsmanship and technical aspects of your art.

The “what” of your artist statement should describe the subject matter of your work. What are your goals and objectives? What do you hope to achieve with your art? Define the central themes, concepts, or subjects that define your artwork. Clearly articulate the ideas or narratives that you explore through your creative practice. Discuss the recurring motifs or visual elements that are integral to your work. By providing a clear understanding of what your art encompasses, you invite viewers to engage with the content and symbolism embedded in your pieces.

The “why” of your artist statement should explain your motivation and inspirations for creating art. Why do you make art? why you create, what drives you, and what you hope to achieve through your work? What does art mean to you? What do you hope to communicate through your art? Share the emotions, experiences, or observations that influence and shape your artistic expression. By revealing the underlying intentions and personal connections, you deepen the connection between your art and its audience.

Here are some examples of how to answer the “how,” “what,” and “why” questions in your artist statement:

How: I create my paintings using a variety of materials, including acrylics, oil paints, and watercolors. I often use a combination of techniques, such as painting, drawing, and collage.

What: My paintings explore themes of memory, loss, and identity. I am drawn to the expressive possibilities of paint, and I use color, texture, and form to create works that are both visually arresting and emotionally resonant.

Why: I make art because it is a way for me to express myself and to explore the world around me. I believe that art has the power to connect people and to make them think about the world in new ways.
Your artist statement should be tailored to your specific work and your individual artistic goals. There is no one right way to write an artist statement, but by following these tips, you can create a statement that is clear, concise, and effective.

Here are some additional tips for writing an artist statement:

Tips:

Start by brainstorming: What are your goals for your art? What do you hope to achieve with your work? What are your influences and inspirations?
Write in the first person: Your artist statement should be a personal statement, so use the first person pronoun “I.”
Be specific: Don’t be afraid to get specific about your work. What materials do you use? What techniques do you employ? What are your themes and motifs? Don’t just say that you are a painter or a sculptor. What kind of work do you make? What materials do you use? What are your influences?
Be concise: Your artist statement should be no more than a few pages long, much better a few lines long. Get to the point quickly and clearly.
Get feedback: Once you have a draft of your artist statement, get feedback from friends, family, or other artists. Ask them for their honest opinions on how well your statement communicates your work and your artistic goals.
Be personal. Your artist statement should reflect your own unique voice and perspective. Don’t be afraid to share your personal experiences and emotions in your writing.
Be honest. Your artist statement should be an honest reflection of your work and your artistic process. Don’t try to be someone you’re not.

Mistake to avoid

Do state what you’re making:
Clearly articulate the mediums, techniques, and themes that define your artistic practice. Provide a brief overview of your artwork, offering readers a glimpse into your creative world.

Don’t have an unclear thesis:
Ensure that your art statement has a clear and focused central idea. Avoid ambiguity or excessive abstraction that may confuse the reader. Develop a coherent thesis that anchors your artistic exploration.

Don’t use qualifying language:
Be confident in your artistic voice and avoid using qualifying language that weakens the impact of your statement. Instead, assert your ideas and convey the strength of your artistic practice.

Don’t reference something without naming it:
When referring to influences, inspirations, or concepts, be specific and provide clear references. Avoid vague allusions that leave the reader guessing. Naming and acknowledging sources adds credibility to your statement.

Don’t use self-deprecating language:
Demonstrate self-assurance and belief in your artistic abilities. Avoid self-deprecating language that undermines the value of your work. Present your art with pride and conviction.

Don’t repeat yourself:
Ensure your art statement is concise and avoids unnecessary repetition. Each sentence should contribute new information or offer a fresh perspective. Edit your statement to maintain a clear and engaging flow.

Don’t be too abstract:
While art can be abstract, your statement should strike a balance between accessibility and conceptual depth. Avoid excessive abstract language that may alienate or confuse your audience. Make your ideas relatable and comprehensible.

Don’t use passive verbs:
Employ active verbs to describe your artistic process and intentions. Active language adds dynamism and energy to your statement, engaging the reader and conveying your artistic agency.

Do point to examples in the work:
Support your art statement with specific examples from your artwork. Reference notable pieces or series that illustrate the concepts, techniques, or themes you discuss. Concrete examples strengthen your argument and provide visual references for readers.

Do use metaphors that logically connect:
Metaphors can enhance understanding and make complex ideas more accessible. Ensure that your metaphors are logical and resonate with your artistic practice. Metaphorical language should enrich your statement without overshadowing its clarity.

Crafting an effective art statement is a skill that can elevate your artistic career. By following these ten guidelines, you can create a compelling and coherent statement that captivates readers and invites them to explore your art more deeply. Embrace the power of words to articulate your creative vision and connect with your audience.

Remember, an art statement should be concise, engaging, and authentic. Avoid excessive jargon or technical language that might alienate readers. Instead, focus on communicating your artistic vision with clarity and passion. Your art statement should invite viewers to explore and interpret your work, fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of your creative journey.

Your art statement is an opportunity to express your artistic identity and engage others in meaningful dialogue about your work.

Barnett Newman

Barnett Newman (1905-1970) studied at the Art Students League for much of the 1920s. Shortly after the beginning of World War II, he stopped painting and destroyed his early paintings. He resumed his search for what he termed “the tragic and timeless” in 1948; by the time of his first one-person exhibition at Betty Parsons Gallery (1950) he was forty-five years old. Newman used scale (his 1951 painting Cathedra is eighteen feet long) and sensual color to create pictorial envelopes that could overwhelm and transform the viewer.

Of all the abstract expressionists, only Newman and Robert Motherwell seriously explored printmaking, and both worked at ULAE. Newman viewed printmaking as a series of challenges. Not only did the relatively small size of lithographic stones require a substantial adjustment from his grandly scaled canvases, but he initially found it difficult to achieve his trademark sense of floating luminosity via ink-on-paper. In 18 Cantos, 1963-1964, he succeeded by exploiting accidents that occurred during the printmaking process, and by taking advantage of the way the margin of a sheet of paper naturally divided space. Newman’s respect for lithography is evident in his preface to 18 Cantos. “For me, it [lithography] … is like a piano or an orchestra, and as with an instrument, it interprets. And as in all the interpretive arts, so in lithography, creation is joined with the ‘playing;’ in this case not of bow and string, but of stone and press.”

Newman shared the Abstract Expressionists’ interests in myth and the primitive unconscious, but the huge fields of color and trademark “zips” in his pictures set him apart from the gestural abstraction of many of his peers. The response to his mature work, even from friends, was muted when he first exhibited it. It was not until later in his career that he began to receive acclaim, and he would subsequently become a touchstone for both Minimalists and a second generation of Color Field painters. Commenting on one of Newman’s exhibitions in 1959, critic Thomas B. Hess wrote, “he changed in about a year’s time from an outcast or a crank into the father figure of two generations.”

• Newman believed that the modern world had rendered traditional art subjects and styles invalid, especially in the post-World War II years shadowed by conflict, fear, and tragedy. Newman wrote: “old standards of beauty were irrelevant: the sublime was all that was appropriate – an experience of enormity which might lift modern humanity out of its torpor.”
• Newman’s pictures were a decisive break with the gestural abstraction of his peers. Instead, he devised an approach that avoided painting’s conventional oppositions of figure and ground. He created a symbol, the “zip,” which might reach out and invoke the viewer standing before it – the viewer fired with the spark of life.
• He thought that humans had a primal drive to create, and one could find expressions of the same instincts and yearnings locked in ancient art as one would find in modern art. He saw artists, and himself, as the creators of the world.

Childhood

Barnett Newman was born in 1905 to Jewish parents who had immigrated to New York from Russian Poland five years earlier. Barney, as his family and friends called him, grew up in Manhattan and the Bronx with three younger siblings. He started drawing at the Art Students League during high school, continuing to take classes there while earning a philosophy degree from City College of New York. It was at the Art Students League that he would meet and befriend Adolph Gottlieb, who would introduce him to important New York artists and gallery owners.

Early Training

Following his college graduation, Newman worked for his father’s clothing manufacturing business until it failed a few years after the 1929 stock market crash. During the next few years, his disparate pursuits included substitute art teaching (despite failing the art teacher qualification exam many times), running as a write-in candidate for mayor in 1933, and creating a short-lived magazine advocating civil service workers’ rights. In 1936, he married Annalee Greenhouse, a teacher. During the early 1940s, he gave up painting entirely. Instead, he studied natural history, ornithology, and Pre-Columbian art, wrote museum catalogue essays and art reviews, and organized exhibitions. His interest in ornithology would later inform his famous quote, “Aesthetics is for the artist as ornithology is for the birds.” During this time, he began a friendship with gallery owner Betty Parsons, for whom he organized several exhibitions. She soon began representing Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, and Jackson Pollock, all close friends of Newman.

By 1944, Newman had returned to art practice, inspired in part by Surrealism. Dissatisfied with his earlier figurative work, he destroyed everything he had previously made, and he would continue to destroy work that failed to please him throughout his career. In 1946, the Betty Parsons Gallery began representing him.

Mature Period

The year 1948 was a major turning point in Newman’s career. He began developing a pictorial device he called a “zip,” a vertical stripe of color running the length of the canvas, and this led to the painting Onement I(1948). The device would become the trademark of all his work to come. With it, he suspended a painting’s traditional opposition of figure and ground and created an enveloping experience of color in which the viewer herself, physically and emotionally, is invoked by the zip – gestured to as a being filled with the original spark of life, just like Newman’s mythical “first man” (see “Writings and Ideas” below). He touched on some of these ideas in explaining how viewers should read his much larger 1950 canvas Vir heroicus sublimis: “It’s no different, really, from meeting another person. One has a reaction to the person physically. Also, there’s a metaphysical thing, and if a meeting of people is meaningful, it affects both their lives.”

The new work, including Onement I (1948), was first shown at Betty Parsons Gallery in 1950. The response, however, was chiefly negative; one painting was even defaced, and Newman’s works would continue to excite violent reactions from audiences, being slashed on several occasions in subsequent years. The following year, Parsons showed him again, yet the response was little better and it drove Newman to withdraw from the gallery scene. Throughout this time he continued writing, producing several philosophical essays about art. Most notably, he wrote “The Sublime Is Now,” in which he stated, “I believe that here in America, some of us, free from the weight of European culture, are finding the answer, by completely denying that art has any concern with the problem of beauty and where to find it.”

His work was not shown anywhere between 1951 and 1955; he even bought back a painting he no longer wanted on view. And throughout these early years, he sold very few paintings. It was not until the early 1960s – and following a heart attack in 1957 – that some of his most ardently negative critics began to shift their viewpoints.

Late Period

With the critical tide gradually changing, many began to consider Newman an important artist within Abstract Expressionism, particularly after Clement Greenberg organized his 1959 solo show at French & Company. In the 1960s, Newman expanded his work into lithographs and sculpture, which he had only delved into earlier in his career. His work appeared in several important museum exhibitions on Abstract Expressionism, securing his significant place within the movement. Despite this broader recognition, however, many still misinterpreted his work; Newman would repeatedly dispute such misunderstandings throughout his career. He would even do this at considerable cost to himself; at a time when few museums were interested in his work, he refused an offer to be in the 1962 Whitney exhibit on Geometric Abstraction.

In 1966, the Guggenheim gave Newman his first solo museum exhibition, displaying his Stations of the Cross, a series of fourteen pictures executed between 1958 and 1966. Although this show also received many negative reviews, it expanded his recognition within the art world. Over the next few years, he continued creating some of his most important work. Among these included his largest painting, Anna’s Light (1968), the series Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue (1966-68) and the monumental sculpture Broken Obelisk (1963-69). On July 4, 1970, Newman died of a heart attack in New York.

The Legacy of Barnett Newman

Although largely unappreciated during his life, Barnett Newman is now viewed as crucial to the Abstract Expressionist movement and as a precursor to Minimalism. Yet he never considered himself a part of any particular movement, nor a contrast to one. He rejected comparisons to geometric painters as well as comments that named him a progenitor of the Minimalist movement. Unlike those more stark canvases that focused on non-representational meaning of shapes and colors, Newman brought a more philosophical edge to his paintings, infusing them with his own self, and inviting the audience to experience them with both their bodies and their psyches.

Writings and Ideas

Introduction

Newman stands out among artists of the New York School for the quantity of writing he produced, particularly in the early to mid 1940s. Discussion and ideas remained important to him, and he likened abstract thought to the non-objective forms of “primitive” art – both, he believed, were aimed at generalization and classification. However, as an artist, Newman claimed to have never approached any painting with a plan. “I am an intuitive painter,” he wrote, one who is concerned with the “immediate and particular.” In this respect, Newman’s ideas about art were romantic. He believed that a maker of abstract art was harnessing the most basic human emotions, but wasn’t bound by any mythology or ancient standard for making art, or even for viewing it.

In a 1962 interview Newman gave to Art in America magazine, he remarked, “The central issue of painting is the subject matter… My subject is antianecdotal.” An anecdotal painting, he believed, was like an episode or a piece in a longer sequence. Newman believed that if a painting is antianecdotal, then it somehow becomes more whole, self-sufficient and independent. He also believed that whatever a painting’s meaning, it would come out in the viewing of the work, not through discussion.

MOST IMPORTANT WRITINGS

‘The First Man Was an Artist’
Tiger’s Eye
October 1947
Newman worked as an associate editor for Tiger’s Eye, and ‘The First Man Was an Artist’ was published in the magazine’s first year. In the essay, Newman asserted the priority of the aesthetic over the social: “The human in language is literature,” he wrote, “not communication.” Humans were artists before they were hunters, he claimed, and were storytellers before they were scientists. “Just as man’s first speech was poetic before it became utilitarian, so man first built an idol of mud before he fashioned an axe.”
Newman also questioned the benefits of scientific advancements on the mind of modern man. His position was not that science was particularly malevolent, but rather that it had become a strict form of theology that restricted the creative spirit. “The domination of science over the mind of modern man,” he wrote, “has been accomplished by the simple tactic of ignoring the prime scientific quest; the concern with its original question What?”

According to Newman, once this question of “what?” ceases to be at the forefront, advancements in the arts and sciences are no longer possible; they became merely the practice of reaffirming old and tried ideas.
In this, perhaps Newman’s most famous essay, he examined the work of several 20^th-century European artists who, he believed, destroyed old standards of beauty. He also briefly touched on the standards of beauty in art established by the ancient Greeks and examined the ways in which influential philosophers – particularly 19^th-century Germans – reconciled these ideas with the advent of new modern styles. The key struggle, according to Newman, was that which occurs between ideas of beauty and ideas of the sublime. Newman concluded that artists had finally succeeded in creating a new standard of beauty and the sublime. Not since the Renaissance, he claimed, had a melding of those two concepts occurred with such force. Before Abstract Expressionism, some of the greatest modern artists had only succeeded in challenging old ideas about beauty in the visual arts: “Picasso’s effort may be sublime,” he wrote, “but there is no doubt that his work is a preoccupation with the question of what is the nature of beauty.” He believed his own generation was a new breed – artists who didn’t simply question or even challenge old standards, but rather created entirely new and consequently sublime ideas about beauty.

On Abstract Art

Newman considered himself a pure artist, working with pure forms. For a 1947 exhibition at Betty Parsons Gallery, entitled The Ideographic Picture, he wrote, “The basis of an aesthetic act is the pure idea. But the pure idea is, of necessity, an aesthetic act.” Newman affirmed his belief that authentic, expressive abstract art was void of symbolism or illusion and that the purest living form in an abstract painting was its shape. “[A] shape [is] a living thing,” he wrote, “a vehicle for an abstract thought-complex, a carrier of the awesome feelings [the artist] felt before the terror of the unknowable.”

On Art and Inquiry

For the first issue of Tiger’s Eye, in October 1947, Newman wrote one of his most famous essays, ‘The First Man Was an Artist’. In it he sought to establish a rather unorthodox link between art and science; “For there is a difference between method and inquiry,” he wrote. “Scientific inquiry, from its beginnings, has perpetually asked a single and specific question, What? What is the rainbow, what is an atom, what is a star [sic]?” This basic and instinctive question of “what?” was what made all art into a science – not a science that set out to prove something, but rather a science that simply sought new knowledge and experience.

On Beauty

According to Newman, all of modern art had been a quest to negate the classical standards of beauty established during the Renaissance. The early Modernists – artists such as Édouard Manet and the Impressionists – had failed to fully achieve this, and the task of completion was left to his own generation. “I believe that here in America,” he wrote in 1948, “some of us, free from the weight of European culture, are finding the answer, by completely denying that art has any concern with the problem of beauty and where to find it… We are reasserting man’s natural desire for the exalted, for a concern with our relationship to the absolute emotions.”

Barnett Newman vs. Ad Reinhardt

In 1956, Ad Reinhardt wrote an article in College Art Journal entitled ‘The Artist in Search of an Academy’, in which he derided Barnett Newman as “the artist-professor and traveling-design-salesman, the Art-Digest-philosopher-poet and Bauhaus-exerciser, the avant-garde-huckster-handicraftsman and educational-shop-keeper, the holy-roller-explainer-entertainer-in-residence.”

Newman was enraged and sued Reinhardt for libel. When the case reached the New York Supreme Court, it was dismissed and subsequently rejected again upon appeal. But Newman was often similarly criticized by fellow artists for being overly romantic – Pollock reportedly called him a “horse’s ass” at one gallery opening.

In Discussion with Hess on Stations of the Cross

In a public conversation between Thomas B. Hess and Newman, staged at the Guggenheim Museum on May 1, 1966, Newman was asked a series of questions regarding his Stations of the Cross series (1958-66), which were exhibited at the museum in Newman’s very first solo exhibition at a public gallery.

“When I call them Stations of the Cross,” he said, “I am saying that these paintings mean something beyond their formal extremes…What I’m saying is that my painting is physical and what I’m saying also is that my painting is metaphysical…that my life is physical and my life is also metaphysical.” Hess later asked Newman about the absence of color in the pictures – something that was unusual in his work. Newman responded, “Tragedy demands black, white, and gray. I couldn’t paint a green passion, but I did try to make raw canvas come into color. That was my color problem – to get the quality of color without the use of color. A painter should try to paint the impossible.”

Source: https://www.theartstory.org/artist/newman-barnett/

How to Grow a Gallery Relationship

Growing a gallery relationship and advancing your career as a contemporary artist requires a strategic approach and consistent effort. Building lasting relationships with galleries can be essential for success.  Here are some steps you can take to foster gallery relationships and enhance your artistic career:

1. Do your research: Before you approach any galleries, it’s important to do your research and find ones that are a good fit for your work. Consider the gallery’s location, size, and focus. You want to find a gallery that will be able to properly represent your work and help you reach your target audience. Begin by researching galleries that align with your artistic style, medium, and career goals. Look for galleries that exhibit similar artists and have a reputation for promoting emerging talents.
   Attend Gallery Openings and Art Events: Visit gallery openings, art fairs, and other art events to familiarize yourself with the local art scene and establish connections.
   Engage with gallery owners, curators, and fellow artists to build relationships and learn about potential exhibition opportunities. After you selected them, cultivate Personal Relationships. Building personal relationships with gallery owners and curators can significantly enhance your chances of representation. Attend artist talks, workshops, and networking events to connect with industry professionals on a personal level. Building trust and rapport can lead to long-term gallery relationships.
   Maintain Professionalism: Approach gallery relationships with professionalism and reliability. Be punctual for meetings and deadlines, communicate effectively, and honor agreements. Demonstrating your commitment and professionalism will help galleries see you as a reliable and serious artist.
   Remember, building gallery relationships and advancing your career as a contemporary artist takes time, perseverance, and dedication. Stay committed to your artistic practice, continuously promote your work, and seize opportunities for growth and exposure.
2. Be prepared to present your work: When you do approach a gallery, be prepared to present your work in a professional manner. This means having high-quality images of your work, as well as a well-written artist statement. You should also be able to answer any questions the gallery may have about your work. Develop a Professional Portfolio: Prepare a high-quality portfolio that showcases your best artwork. Include an artist statement, CV/resume, and high-resolution images of your work. Your portfolio should be visually compelling and provide comprehensive information about your artistic practice. Submit Your Work: Submit your portfolio and exhibition proposals to galleries that you have identified as potential partners. Follow their submission guidelines and tailor your application to their specific requirements. Be prepared for rejection and maintain a persistent and professional approach.
3. Be persistent: It may take some time to find the right gallery for you. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t get a yes right away. Keep submitting your work to galleries and eventually you will find one that is a good fit.
4. Be supportive of the gallery: Once you have a relationship with a gallery, it’s important to be supportive of them. This means attending their events, promoting their shows, and buying work from other artists they represent. By being supportive of the gallery, you are showing them that you are a valuable asset to their team.
5. Be yourself: The most important thing is to be yourself and to create work that you are passionate about. If you do that, you will eventually find the right gallery for you and you will be on your way to a successful career.
6. Connect and cultivate personal relationships with curatos, art critics: Collaborate with other artists, curators, and institutions to expand your network and visibility. Participate in group shows, art competitions, and art residencies to gain exposure and establish yourself within the art community.
7. Stay Active Online: Utilize social media platforms, your website, and online art platforms to showcase your work and engage with a wider audience. Actively share your artistic process, upcoming exhibitions, and achievements. Develop an online presence that reflects your artistic vision and attracts potential gallery representatives.
8. Continuous Growth and Professional Development: Strive for continuous growth as an artist. Attend workshops, artist retreats, and educational programs to further develop your skills and broaden your artistic horizons. This commitment to self-improvement will make you more attractive to galleries.
9. Seek Professional Advice: Consider seeking professional advice from art consultants, art coaches, curatos or art critics who can provide guidance and support in navigating the art world. They can offer valuable insights and help you make informed decisions about your career path.

Here are some additional tips for growing your career as a contemporary artist:

• Network with other artists and professionals in the art world. Attend art fairs, exhibitions, and other events. Get to know other artists, curators, collectors, and gallery owners.
• Promote your work online and offline. Create a website and social media accounts to showcase your work. Write articles or blog posts about your art. Submit your work to juried exhibitions.
• Take risks and experiment with new ideas. Don’t be afraid to try new things. The more you experiment, the more you will learn and grow as an artist.
• Be patient and persistent. It takes time to build a successful career as an artist. Don’t give up on your dreams. Keep creating and keep believing in yourself.

MASTERS THAT CHANGED THE CITY

A Tribute to Jesús Rafael Soto and Carlos Cruz Diez on Their Centennial

Carole A. Fewell Gallery |  June 2 – October 22, 2023
Curated by Yuni Villalonga, Director of Curatorial Programs

This exhibition celebrates the centenary of world-renowned artists Jesús Rafael Soto (b. 1923, Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela – d. 2005, Paris, France)  and Carlos Cruz-Diez (b. 1923, Caracas, Venezuela – d. 2019, Paris, France.) Visionaries of their time, these artists redefined the relationship between art and architecture, as well as the art experience in the public space. Their explorations are key to the Kinetic and Op Art movements, and influenced many other generations of artists, internationally.

Masters that Changed the City… features a selection of iconic works by the artists that are a clear testament to their significant contributions to the Op and Kinetic Art movements, globally. Visitors will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a world of movement, light and optical illusion, from Cruz Diez’s “chromosaturations” to one of Soto’s penetrables. The exhibition conveys these artists’ ability to create immersive environments that challenge our perception and invite us to engage in a unique and profound way. It also provides a historical context for their work, highlighting them as pioneers in the integration of the arts, the architecture, and the urban fabric.

Through educational panels, documentary films, and curator presentations, visitors will gain a deeper understanding of the artists’ legacy and their ongoing influence on contemporary art.

This exhibition is organized in collaboration with Logistic Fine Arts, Miami and Atelier Soto, Caracas-Paris. With it, the Coral Gables Museum joins the international celebrations of the legacy of maestros Cruz Diez and Soto in their centennial.

The Power of Consistency: Cultivating a Sustainable Art Network

What is one practice that artists can use to increase the sustainability of their careers?

Alessandro Levato 

Artworkarchive.com

We’ll let you in on one simple practice that has the power to build successful art careers. 

Keep your art network up to date alongside your art practice.

The art world has developed to connect artists, art professionals, and art viewers through a variety of online and in-person platforms. For artists, it’s important for your network to build and grow with you.

Below, we have gathered some tips, tricks, and professional advice to ensure the sustainability of your artistic career.

Divide your studio practice into administrative work and creative work.

This is essential for a healthy balance in your art career.

Without the stress of outreach and communication hovering over you, that extra time will be used exclusively to work in the studio.

Using quick-update platforms such as Instagram stories may be beneficial to providing short glimpses into your studio life without much pressure on you. They’re also a great way to have your audience involved in your creative process!

You can pose questions and polls to get more engagement with your audience.

Show part of an artwork instead of the whole; think about the process over the final image! Give sneak peeks on your techniques to show your audience the steps that go into creating works. Viewers will feel like they have special insight into your creative practice, which will make them more likely to feel connected to you. 

Consider if social media is right for you (it doesn’t have to be).

Posting monthly updates of your studio, resources, or events on a blog or website are standard options, but there are a variety of other ways you can keep your following engaged.

Keep a growing list or Contact Group on Artwork Archive. This allows you to send updates or event emails If you are participating in events such as shows, group exhibitions, or open studios—plus, you can quickly send off updates to these groups using Artwork Archive.

Update your network in relation to your artwork.

To find what works for you, think about your goals—then, work backward to see what best fits your needs.

Start small! Building a network doesn’t have to be intimidating. You probably already have contact information for family, colleagues, friends, and other artists in your life. This is the starting point for your network. 

Gather contact info from people within your community to gain peer-related inspiration, knowledge, and struggles. These relationships tend to lead to opportunities like group shows, critiques, and additional resources.

Learn more here: How to Network for Your Art Business

Absorb advice from art world professionals.

Artwork Archive spoke with the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in Brooklyn, New York, to learn more about how artists can network for their careers.

ISCP programming for their artists and curators includes public-facing events such as open studios and exhibitions in their two gallery spaces. They encourage open doors for a collaborative environment and conduct various social meet-ups and gallery visits each month. 

They emphasized the importance of starting your network with your artistic contemporaries. This comes into practice with artist residencies and the networks that you build in these programs.

How do they suggest doing this? ISCP generously provided advice on how artists can best grow their network.

First, don’t be hard on yourself. Allowing flexibility within your practice and knowing that there is a range of ways to network is critical to finding what works best for you. Some important factors to keep in mind while getting started are to ask other artists who they have connections with. Many opportunities come from artists mentioning other artists they are familiar with to a gallery owner or curator.

Have a mailing list and send out quarterly newsletters to keep your network up to date, without forcing the connection. 

Develop your elevator pitch for brief moments of interaction—break it down, practice it, and gather feedback.

Don’t forget to mention artists you like in conversation to provide opportunities for others. Lifting each other up is essential to a support network. For example, ISCP has an entire studio floor for NYC-based artists to maintain a continual conversation with their community. This produces a reciprocal exchange between New York mentorship and international contemporary dialogue.

Build out your professional art network.

Build out your professional art network with connections with a variety of art professionals. Consider a wide range of professionals like art shippers, framers, curators, art gallery consultants, art administrators at art organizations or non-profits, art handlers, researchers, art historians, and the like as part of your extended art network. All of these people within the field will get your name around.

Plus, this can increase your credibility; the more people are mentioning you, the more opportunities will open up in the future. As your network starts growing, develop a process for evaluating what is working for you. Maybe you need to work on growing more general contacts or look towards a more niche field.

Be sure to always check in about why you are doing this kind of networking and how you measure your success.

As you grow these contacts, you can start looking for client relationships.

Your client relationships are your art buyers or collectors. They are clients who want to follow and support you throughout your art career. These contacts are your last focus because they slowly build out from keeping your other networks consistent.

Clients may be interested in your work and follow you for ten years before they decide which work they want. Your relationship with potential clients is slow and nurtured within the confines of your own comfort. You already created the work and sustained your network, now let the rest come naturally. Ask questions, provide updates consistently, and give your work the under arching administrative support it deserves. 

Leverage your contacts with a CMS platform like Artwork Archive.

Don’t just collect contacts, use them to grow your art business!

You have spent time and energy collecting contacts, but the payoff comes from following through. As you divide your studio work, sharing updates and posting becomes a part of your scheduled administrative time. Creating new contacts on Artwork Archive is a part of that too—that means going to gallery openings, museums, art fairs or other artists’ studio visits and collecting emails from people you want to foster relationships with. As you visit more places and see more art, your network will grow with you. 

Dividing up your network has never been easier.

You can use Contact Groups to organize your contacts into specific categories like Gallery Connections, Artist Studio Colleagues, Art Fair Interactions, or even more specific such as Digital Work Lovers.

If that’s not enough, you can opt to create a Public Profile to share your artwork through an online presence. You can choose to have your profile on Artwork Archive’s Discovery Platform where people can come to learn more about you and your artwork. This can also benefit you to find other artists who are like-minded in the ways they are choosing to manage, document, and share their works.

Make sure to share your Artwork Archive Public Profile URL in your emails so people can be directed to your page! 

Setting up the booth is the beginning of The Makers Market Day, photo by Artist Antje Roitzsch

Nurture your art community.  

Your network is a huge part of maintaining a consistently growing group of supporters. Bring out those nurturing feelings and keep those connections alive.

There is a wide variety of artistic collectives that began on the foundations provided above. Starting a network is only half of it;  keeping your community updated on what you are doing encourages growth and follow-through. Participatory culture literally means to participate in culture. Keep expanding your resources and searching for new art organizations and programs that you could possibly become a part of.

Platforms such as Now Be Here went through many collaborations, realizations, and iterations to develop into their digital resource today. Encourage a slow sustainable growth that healthily tends to your needs as an artist. 

Artist communities and networks have the power to influence the art world.

Remember, Artwork Archive is a part of your community already. We provide a variety of resources, webinars, and questionnaires to help sustain community dialogue. You can use Artwork Archive’s Discovery Platform to connect with artists, collectors, and arts organizations who share similar views about archiving their works. 

Plus, stay up to date with the latest art news and get art career advice like this sent to your inbox once a week by joining our free newsletter here.

With a bit of conversation, time, and consistency, you will be on your way to sustaining your career!

8 Common Mistakes Artists Make

& How To Fix Them

By Julien Delagrange

Introduction: The Unwritten Rules of the Art World

Today, it seems there are no rules when it comes to creating contemporary art. Everything is possible, and there are no clear do’s and don’t’s. An artist can experience the ultimate freedom in the artist studio, but when they come out of the studio and enters ‘the art world’ aiming to grow their career as an artist, they can quickly encounter some difficulties and common mistakes artists make.

When it comes to an artist’s career and actions, numerous unwritten rules in the art world can make or break your career. The truth is your art will only be taken seriously when you stick to certain norms and standards.

In this article, we will be sharing these norms and standards. The unwritten rules of the art world are much less accessible or convenient to discover, and most artists must learn them the hard way, often losing many years of their career or sometimes even never discovering them.

These rules are inside information, and only by being an ‘insider’ you can get to know them and become successful in the art world. But how can one become an ‘insider’ if nobody tells you these rules? A paradox holding back many artists, and we aim to break this tendency to share everything you need to know as an artist, but nobody is telling you.

As a result, we are pleased to present eight common mistakes artists make and how to fix them. Instead of discussing apparent ingredients for success—such as willpower, sacrifice, or discipline—we will share specific actions, the things to avoid, and how to do things the right way.

After reading this article, you might consider reading our extensive article on How To Succeed As An Artist/Painter, purchase the printed publication How To Become A Successful Artist published by Phaidon, or feel free to head over to our Services for artists to get featured on our platform or to request personalized 1-on-1 advice.

1. No Recognizability: Having No Characteristic Visual Language and Technique

Our first crucial mistake many artists make might seem obvious, but it is much more challenging to address or fix than one might think. It is to say, the art world is immensely competitive and saturated. There are more artists today than there have ever been before.

With art being a product that can last for hundreds of years, today, there are more paintings than walls to hang them. Or, we have more artists in the world than we have art galleries to represent them. As a result, you MUST stand out.

The only way to do this is by having a very characteristic visual language. If you think about it, all successful artists can be identified at first glance when seeing their work. We don’t need to see their signature or a text card on the wall to know it is theirs.

When one sees a painting by Jenny Saville, we immediately recognize her voluptuous bodies, pink skin tones, and virtuoso brushstrokes. If we see a giant steel spider, we don’t hesitate for a second and know it is one of Louise Bourgeois‘ iconic Maman sculptures. If we see polka dots or pumpkins in sculpture, painting, fashion, or installation, we instantly know we are in the presence of an artwork by Yayoi Kusama.

They stand out because they have found their trait, style, medium, subjects, and motifs and have pursued them radically. Do things differently by following some things which are only yours, and do it radically. As a result, you will achieve a recognizable oeuvre. And doing so, you will stand out and be recognized as your career grows.

From our experience as a contemporary art gallery and as a platform examining contemporary art, this is the number one aspect galleries and collectors are looking for from a visual perspective. As a result, we can not understate the importance of having a characteristic visual language and technique.

2. Inconsistency: Radically Changing Your Style and Vision

From an artistic production point of view, there is nothing more harmful to your career than switching things up radically in the middle of your (growing) career. Galleries and collectors look out for artists who are consistent. The continuity of your oeuvre is critical.

If a gallery is exploring the possibility of working with you, or a collector has recently bought an artwork by you because they believe in you as an artist and see great potential in the growth of your career and thus the value of your works. Suddenly, you change your style completely; I guarantee the gallery director and collector will lose trust and interest in you as an artist. As a result, you have to start from square one.

Even more, you could risk damaging your artistic career permanently. If your oeuvre switches too much, you will be seen as unpredictable and thus unreliable for a long-term collaboration or as a long-term investment. As a result, collectors and gallery owners will hold back and prefer not to invest in you as an artist and go for a more consistent artist.

Yes, it would help if you evolved as an artist, career-wise and in your artistic production. But the development must follow a particular line and, above all, a vision. It is possible to start practicing a different technique or medium or change your overall visual language as long as it aligns with your vision and artist statement. The most important thing is to be consistent in the story you tell.

As a result, we highly advise all artists to write down an artist statement and use it as a compass, reevaluating it at least once a year. This might seem a formality or even a useless task, but in reality, it is a beneficial exercise, connecting your practice with your vision and setting out why your work is relevant today. Your philosophy enables you to create this continuity throughout your oeuvre. It challenges you to reflect upon your works, making it a very healthy thing to do for any artist.

Please don’t use this artist statement as something to post on your website or to send out to collectors and gallerists, but use it as a personal tool that will support you throughout your career. When you are being questioned about your work on the spot during an interesting conversation, you will already know the words and tell your story consistently from conversation to conversation.

3. Having No Frame of Reference: Get To Know Art History and Today’s Art World

Of course, one can not write down a relevant artist statement or have a solid foundation to build a compelling oeuvre or a professional career in the art world without having a reasonable frame of reference when it comes to art. As a result, it is of primordial importance to get to know art history and today’s art world first before you can join the debate and participate as an artist.

As an artist aiming to grow their career in the art world, you can be sure your knowledge of (recent) art history and overall intelligence or critical thinking will be tested by galleries, critics, collectors, and institutions. As a result, it would be naive to believe it is possible to make it as an artist without immersing yourself in art.

As we have mentioned, the art world is highly competitive, with numerous artists competing for the same galleries and collectors. As a result, the requirements to succeed as an artist are diverse and even demanding. As an artist, you are expected to have a solid knowledge of art history. In art, as soon as you put a mark on a canvas, you engage in a historical dialogue of thousands of years and thousands of artists. As a result, the canon of art history and contemporary art must be ready for knowledge.

You must educate yourself, have degrees in art history or the arts, stay up to date by reading contemporary art magazines, subscribe to art platforms, follow renowned social media channels, visit art exhibitions and significant museums, stay posted on the most important art events such as biennials, and experience the art world at first hand by visiting art galleries. Only this way will you discover the subtleties of art and the way the art world works.

4. Inconsistent & Indiscreet Pricing: Follow The Market Standard

A common mistake that can prevent you from having any growth career-wise as an artist is pricing your artwork wrong. A great misconception about contemporary art is that you can charge whatever you want for an artwork. However, as with any industry, there is an evident market standard for artists depending on their curriculum vitae and the offer versus the demand.

Only the correct prices will result in good sales. And only by building a steady history of sales can your art and your career as an artist increase in value.

When you are a beginning artist—meaning you haven’t had any exhibitions at real commercial art galleries (discover the different types of art galleries in our article The Art Gallery: Everything You Need To Know), nor have you won any renowned art prizes and your artworks don’t feature in any public or institutional collections—your prices will be situated between $200 and €2.000. By doing so, your works are primarily valued based on their decorative qualities.

When you become an emerging artist—meaning you are an artist who is still in the early stages of their career, exhibiting at some commercial art galleries by invitation, but not yet making a mark on the art world by being collected by institutions or featuring in institutional exhibitions—your artworks should be priced between €1.000 an $10.000. Now, you transcend the decorative qualities of your works and have achieved an additional artistic and art-historic value, becoming a collectible object and investment with a potential return on investment, raising the prices of your works.

As a mid-career artist—when you start to receive proper validation from the art world in the form of institutional exhibitions and by being collected by renowned private and public collections—your works will be situated in a price range of $10.000 up to $50.000. When you become a truly established artist, you will sometimes surpass the $50.000 mark to approximately $500.000. Feel free to discover more about the value of art by reading our extensive article Why Is Contemporary Art So Expensive? next.

When it comes to pricing paintings, there is a straightforward formula to determine the correct prices for your works. You will notice these prices resonate with the aforementioned price range depending on the artist’s career phase.

The sum of the dimensions of the painting, meaning height plus width, results in the asking price for the painting when multiplied by the artist index number.

(Height + Width) x Index = Price of your painting.

Once again, the artist index number depends upon the validation you have received from the art world. As a beginner artist, your index should be between 5 and 10. Doing so, a 100 by 80 cm painting will be priced at $900 up to $1.800.

As soon as you exhibit more frequently and become more serious about your career as a painter, you can apply an artist index between 10 and 15. Doing so, the same painting of 100 by 80 cm should be priced at $1.800 up to $2.700.

When you become a true emerging artist, you are frequently invited by commercial art galleries to participate in group and solo exhibitions. You start to gain genuine interest from various collectors building the foundation of your selling history; your artist index number should be between 15 and 25. The asking price of the 100 x 80 cm painting has now achieved the market standard in galleries for emerging artists, resulting in an asking price between $2.700 and $4.500.

Suppose you would start to surpass these numbers due to increasing demand for your artwork. In that case, you will have a steady and decent gallery representation that can advise you and use their experience in growing artists’ careers when pricing your artworks. From here on, pricing your artwork will no longer be an issue for you to solve by yourself. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to find the proper gallery for you and to truly invest in a long-term synergetic collaboration.

To conclude, you must be discreet with your pricing. Don’t show prices on your artist’s website or numerous online marketplaces. This might scare away gallery owners if they see you would be selling your works too cheap online directly to the client. Further, suppose a collector buys your artwork via a gallery one day, and they discover you sell your works on your website, Saatchi, or any other marketplace at a lower price. In that case, he will rightfully feel they have been charged too much, damaging his trust, and they will probably never buy one of your works again—or at the gallery that was willing to work with you.

5. Vanity Art Galleries & Contests: Focus On Mutually Beneficial Collaborations

As a motivated artist who would almost do anything to kickstart their career, you might be tempted to work with a so-called vanity art gallery. These galleries will charge the artist to exhibit at their gallery, and they promise you they will promote your works and will try to sell them to their clients. However, the truth is that their clients are not art collectors but you as the artist.

With thousands of artists, if not more, searching to find their way into the art world and dreaming of having an exhibition in an art gallery, vanity art galleries have identified this as a commercial opportunity to make a profit, squeezing money out of beginning artists’ pockets. They are not real art galleries, as they don’t have a curated gallery program. They do not exhibit artists based on the quality of their artworks but on the size of their wallet and if they are willing to pay to be included in an exhibition.

Vanity art galleries have already cashed in on your collaboration as soon as you agree to work with them. Doing so, they are more focused on searching for new artists willing to pay to exhibit at their gallery for the next exhibition than they are occupied with representing and promoting the artists they work with during the current show. As a result, vanity art galleries often do not have a qualitative gallery program, resulting in very few collectors following the gallery and a smaller chance for sales for the artist once more.

As a result, we strongly advise you to avoid collaborating with these vanity art galleries. So if one day you receive an invitation to work with an art gallery but they charge you money to participate in the show, think twice and be very critical towards their flattering invitation as it is a trick to lure you into becoming a customer for their business, with very little return for you as the artist.

Instead, focus on searching for mutually beneficial collaborations. That’s why commercial art galleries are the best type of gallery for artists—even though the connotation of the term ‘commercial art gallery’ might sound a bit negative. Commercial art galleries make money when they sell your works. Doing so, they are strongly motivated to sell your work, and whatever is good for them will also be good for you.

Further, there are different opportunities and ways to start exhibiting as a beginning artist. Discover them by reading chapter 7, How To Start Exhibiting Your Artworks, of our article How To Succeed as a Painter/Artist next, or read more about the different types of art galleries by reading our article, The Art Gallery: Everything You Need To Know.

There are also online art contests that apply a similar business model with their open calls. For an application fee of around $25, you can enter an art contest which they promise will attract many eyeballs and interesting collectors and galleries.

The truth is, however, the only people interested in or following these contests are other artists in the same boat as you, aiming to kickstart their careers. Yes, there is the possibility of a money prize, but applying for these online art contests can often be very similar to playing a $25 bet in the casino. In the end, the house always wins.

Further, with the primary objective of these online art contests being to make a profit, they will not invest in selecting a renowned independent jury because this would reduce their profit margin. As a result, a possible selection for these art contests will mean nothing in the art world and will not get you any further from a career perspective.

However, art contests, in general, are an important opportunity for beginning artists. One must first identify the ‘real’ art contests from the so-called online vanity art contests. We advise you to only apply for art contests with a long-running history, most often funded by a public institution. Look for art contests in which previous winners are established artists, and the jury is a panel of experts and renowned figures in the art world, such as curators, critics, and established artists.

These art contests will most often have a physical exhibition for all selected artists or the finalists at the show’s end. Doing so, applying for such an art contest is not only an opportunity to win a cash prize but also to have a meaningful exhibition when being selected, which is an excellent asset on your artist’s resume. Further, during these shows by renowned art contests, there will be exciting gallery directors and collectors present, which may open doors for new collaborations in the future.

6. Unprofessional Artist Websites: The Must-Follow Structure for Artist Websites

Regarding the unwritten rules of the art world, there are particular rules regarding having artist websites. Suppose you don’t follow these rules and the archetypical structure for artist websites. In that case, you will be written off as an amateur artist, and many galleries and collectors will lose interest in your profile and presentation online as an artist.

Less is more when it comes to artist websites. Go for a minimal overall look with a white background and a black or grey trendy font such as Helvetica or Roboto. There are only three must-have pages on an artist’s website. A page with a selection of your best works and metadata (title, year, medium, surface, and dimensions), a page with your artist resume (year of birth, location of birth, current location, exhibition history, collections, awards, publications and residencies if applicable), and a page with an email address or contact form to get in touch with you. Some artists could add a section with texts by art critics, a news page to communicate exhibitions, and maybe another page to overview their monographic books—if applicable.

If you visit several artist websites by successful mid-career and established artists, you will notice that all artists use this structure. Even more, you will discover the most common layout and how to present your selection of works and your artist’s resume. For a more extensive explanation of how to set up a professional artist website, read chapter six of our article on How To Succeed As A Painter/Artist next.

Things you absolutely must avoid on your website are unprofessional domain names—e.g., www.amazingpaintingsforsale.com—free Webhosting showing ads on your site. As mentioned before, prices on your website are a no-go (cf. supra). And don’t write different texts about your works. Only use texts by art critics; do not start a blog on your artist’s website because this is also frowned upon. You will come across as unprofessional and too eager to talk about yourself or sell yourself to the world.

7. Cold Calling/Mailing Art Galleries: ‘Pushy’ Self-Marketing Does Not Work

Even though many people believe becoming a successful artist today is all about marketing yourself, actively selling and promoting yourself as an artist is strongly frowned upon and could have a counterproductive effect. One of the most common daily mistakes thousands of artists make is cold calling or emailing art galleries by the dozen. This has proven to be one of the most ineffective strategies of self-marketing.

More artists are looking for gallery representation than art galleries are looking for new artists. As a result, galleries receive numerous emails and gallery visits on an almost daily basis by artists introducing themselves and luring them to be included in an exhibition. As they are being bombarded by those emails, it can become incredibly annoying for the galleries because it has become impossible to review all these unsolicited submissions. As a result, your email will go straight to the deleted email folder without watching your work for a split second.

This might sound harsh, but it is, in fact, a very logical reaction. Galleries have to disappoint artists every day. And if you think about it, asking or demanding a gallery to represent you out of the blue—which means they will have to invest a lot of money and time in you—is, in fact, not an honorable thing to expect. They do not owe you anything; they did not choose to get to know you; the artist decided that they have to review and consider their works.

In the art world, pushy strategies of self-marketing don’t work. Even more, you come across as an unsuccessful artist because you are not getting invited by other galleries, which will only decrease your chances of being represented. As a result, a more subtle and—even—more polite strategy needs to be effectuated to have the opportunity to work with a gallery.

The main goal or pretext for potential collaboration with a gallery is the gallery director seeing your works. If you submit your portfolio by mail or drop it off at the gallery desk, I guarantee they will not look at your results, certainly not in the proper context.

Instead, it would help if you maximize the chance of galleries viewing your works by chance—think of social media, other exhibitions, graduation shows, or shows at the end of an art contest (cf. supra). So, if they like what they see, they will get in touch with you. And, if they are the ones who contact you, you are in a much stronger position to negotiate or discuss the possibility of an exhibition.

You can network indirectly by following art galleries on Instagram and commenting on their posts. Or by visiting art galleries and chatting with the director or gallery assistant. Be involved in the art world, network in an organic manner, and build personal relationships with various actors, such as other artists, collectors, critics, and more.

But don’t mention you are an artist during your first interaction, or they will immediately think you are another artist who wants something from them. Instead, be genuinely interested in the exhibition you visit instead of only being interested in yourself, and you are much more likely to see that interest is returned to you.

If you would like to read a more extensive take on how to get noticed in the art world and by galleries, make sure to read our article How To Get Discovered as an Artist next.

8. Pursuing Lucrative Purposes: Think about the Long-term

We conclude with crucial advice regarding your objectives as an artist. If you aim to make a living with your art, the best way to do this is by building a solid career as an artist, which is the only thing that can add value to your works (cf. supra). However this takes time and patience, but it is the only way to have a lucrative career in the art world.

Our experience in the art world has shown that people who pursue artistic purposes will be successful and have lucrative careers—both artists and art galleries. People focusing on making money in the short-term, seeking profit instead of artistic quality, are destined to fail due to those notorious unwritten rules of the art world.

Successful artist careers don’t happen overnight. They take time and grow organically. You will notice one exhibition, art contest, or encounter in a gallery that will guide you to the next. And before you have fully realized it, you will be part of the art world, participating in the debate of contemporary art as an insider. If you would like to read an extensive take on how you can earn money as an artist while pursuing long-term success, make sure to read the article 20 Ways Artists Make Money next.

Make sure to read our article on How To Succeed As A Painter/Artist for a step-by-step approach to thinking in the long term and building a career as an artist the right way. Feel free to discover our services for artists, including our 1-on-1 professional advice and promotion services for artists, here.

Julien Delagrange

Julien Delagrange (b. 1994, BE) is an art historian, contemporary artist, and the director of CAI and CAI Gallery. Previously, Delagrange has worked for the Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR) in Brussels, the Jan Vercruysse Foundation, and the Ghent University Library. His artistic practice and written art criticism are strongly intertwined, examining contemporary art in search of new perspectives in the art

Tips for Finding a Public Commission Art Opportunity

Interested in making work that will become a part of your city’s landscape? 

Suzy Kopf 

Artmiamimagazine.com

If you’re an artist interested in making work that will be shown publicly or that will become part of the permanent landscape of your city, you need to consider applying for public commissions.

“Public art is any opportunity that an artist has to engage with the public realm. It is about artists making a conscious effort to engage and collaborate in the public realm,” said artist, public art manager, and consultant Renee Piechocki.

This sector of the art world is often (but not always) associated with and overseen by nonprofits, which means that instead of selling yourself and your ideas to one person—such as a gallerist or collector as you do in the commercial art world—you need to convince a whole group of people such as a board of directors of your work’s relevance.

The convincing happens in the application you’ll put together which typically includes an image portfolio of previous projects, a written component, and sometimes, a full project proposal and budget.

But, before you can even get to putting together a winning application, you need to find calls for public commissions in which to apply.

Start with the right places to search for art opportunities

Artwork Archive is a great place to start your search; our 2023 Opportunity Guide has national and regional public commissions listed, with more opportunities being added all the time.

Commissions that are selected by public call and projects are often paid for by taxpayers’ money, which means that who is eligible to apply is often limited to where you live by state, region, or even county.

The way to find the most opportunities in which you are eligible is to start your search in your own community. This is also a good place to start if you haven’t done any budget-based project work before—it’s harder (but not impossible) to get the opportunity to make a six-figure international commission if you haven’t first done a few smaller budget ones in the past.

Consider places in your community such as hospitals, museums, and airports

When searching in your community, consider places where you frequently see public art pieces such as hospitals, museums that get state funding, airports, municipal and government offices, and public lands like parks and recreation areas with outdoor sculptures or installations.

Hospitals can be a great place for you to market and sell your artwork. According to the Arts and Health Alliance, 56% of all hospitals, hospices and nursing centers use parts of their operating budgets to buy paintings and sculptures.

Airport terminals are looking more and more like the wings of an art museum. With their massive atriums, seemingly endless corridors, and captive travelers, airports are a perfect venue for art installations.

Tip: learn more about working with hospitals here and working with airports here.

Look on the websites of these entities and see if they have any calls for proposals listed. Sign up for their opportunity newsletters or join Artwork Archive’s newsletter and get weekly opportunities like public art deadlines sent to your inbox.

If the organizations that you are interested in don’t have anything currently on their website, you can try instead to look up the CVs of the artists who previously created work for these sites. See if you can find more information there.

You can also reach out over email to people with job titles such as “Public Arts Coordinator” who work for your city’s government or any city-sponsored arts organizations to find out when their next deadline is.

Look to those artists who have previously secured public funding for their work

As always, it’s never a bad idea to review the CVs of artists you know who have already done some public commissions and see if you can learn anything about when or how much funding they received to complete their work.

You can also reach out to them directly and ask if they would be willing to talk to you about their experience with a particular commission, and if they recommend it. You’d be surprised how much most people are willing to freely share about their experiences.

Expand your search for public art commissions once you have gotten a few projects under your belt

Once you’ve acquainted yourself with what kinds of local opportunities exist where you live, and gotten a couple of projects to the completion stage, you can expand your searches to national and international opportunities you’re eligible for.

With these opportunities you feel your work is a good match for, ask yourself how far you are willing to travel to both make and deliver the artwork.

Are you willing to drive a sculpture you made in California to Chicago for display?

Pay attention to the information in the call that indicates a bias towards local or already-established artists—if you don’t fall into one of those groups you could be wasting your time. Like with all applications, expect to put in a lot of work for possibly a lot of rejection. But if you’re successful with even one application, your art has the possibility to live on beyond you in a totally new way!

Increase your chances of getting accepted by following directions. “If an RFQ says don’t come up with an idea, then don’t propose an idea. In an RFQ, you are not looking for projects developed in isolation. You are looking for artists to come up with an idea in the context of the project and with the community,” Renee Piechocki advises.

Search and save your favorite public art opportunities on Artwork Archive 

Each year the Artwork Archive team goes on a mission to find the best art opportunities, grants, and calls-for-entry for the upcoming year—including the best public art opportunities.

You can find a list of the top call for public art, artist residencies, international open calls, artist grants, exhibition opportunities and art competitions in Artwork Archive’s 2023 Opportunity Guide

This year, we added another new feature! You can now save the important deadlines for your favorite opportunities right in your Artwork Archive account.

When you find a call that interests you, simply click ‘Add to Schedule’ and the call’s deadline will be automatically added to your Schedule. You’ll also receive weekly reminders to keep you on top of your game.

We will be updating this list throughout the year, so make sure to bookmark the page, check back often, and let us know if there is an opportunity that should be listed!

Cover photo:

“41 Structures,” a creative collaboration between Debbie Clapper (aka gneural) & Cacheflowe, is an immersive digital mural that evolves through a series of 41 animated designs. By anchoring our animated elements to window corners and subdividing the architecture into a necessarily-imperfect grid, we built a custom canvas for our geometries to explore and play together. Photo by Ryan Policky.