How to write an artist CV: format, template and example
An artist CV is the record of your professional life as an artist: where you studied, where you have shown, and who has recognized or collected your work. Here is the standard format, a template to copy and a complete example.
Short answer
An artist CV is a factual list of your achievements as an artist, newest first. It starts with your name and contact details, then education, solo exhibitions, group exhibitions, awards and residencies, collections, and press. Each exhibition is written as year, title, venue and city. Unlike a job résumé it has no summary or skills section, and it grows with your career instead of staying at one page.
What is an artist CV?
An artist CV (curriculum vitae) is a list of your professional history as an artist, with the most recent entries first. It records where you trained, where your work has been exhibited, what awards, grants and residencies you have received, which collections hold your work, and where it has been written about.
You will be asked for one when you apply to open calls, grants, residencies and teaching jobs, when you approach a gallery, and when a curator or journalist wants background. It also belongs on your own website.
It differs from an ordinary job CV in three ways. It contains only your activity as an artist, so unrelated jobs are left out. It has no objective, profile or skills section. And nothing in it is described or argued: it is a list of facts, formatted consistently, that a reader can scan in a minute.
What is the difference between an artist CV, a résumé, a bio and a statement?
These four documents get requested together and are easy to confuse. Each does a different job.
| Document | What it is | Length | Written as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Artist CV | The complete record of your career as an artist | As long as it needs to be | A list, newest first |
| Artist résumé | A shortened CV, selected for one application | One or two pages | A list, newest first |
| Artist bio | The highlights of the CV turned into a paragraph | 100 to 200 words | Prose, third person |
| Artist statement | What the work is, how it is made and why | 100 to 200 words | Prose, first person |
The CV comes first, because the résumé and the bio are both cut from it. The statement is separate: it is about the work, not the career. See how to write an artist statement, with examples.
What should an artist CV include?
Use the sections below, in this order, and leave out any that are empty. The order follows the conventions used by galleries, art schools and funders, so a reader knows where to look.
| Section | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Name and contact | Your name, the city where you live and work, email and website. Year and place of birth are common in the art world but optional. |
| Education | Degrees with year, subject, institution and city. Self-taught artists can leave this section out. |
| Solo exhibitions | Exhibitions of your work alone. Two-person shows go here too, marked as such. |
| Group exhibitions | Shows with three or more artists. Becomes “Selected Group Exhibitions” once it is long. |
| Awards, grants and residencies | Year, name of the award or residency, the organization and its city. |
| Collections | Museums, institutions and companies that own your work. Name private collectors only with their permission. |
| Press | Reviews, articles and catalogues that discuss your work, written as bibliography entries. Also titled “Bibliography”. |
| Other professional activity | Art-related teaching, artist talks, commissions, public art, curated projects, and gallery representation. |
Leave these out:
- A photograph of yourself, your date of birth, marital status or home address.
- An objective, a personal summary or a list of skills.
- Jobs that have nothing to do with art.
- Prices, sales figures and the names of private buyers.
- Hobbies and references.
What is the correct format for an artist CV?
The format matters because readers compare many CVs quickly. The rules are simple and worth following exactly.
- Newest first. Within every section, list entries in reverse chronological order.
- Year first. Start each line with the year, in a column of its own, so the eye can run down the dates.
- One pattern per section. For exhibitions: year, title of the exhibition in italics, venue, city, and state or country.
- Mark what is unusual. Add “(solo)”, “(two-person)”, “(catalogue)” or “curated by” after the entry it applies to.
- Plain layout. One typeface at 10 to 12 points, black on white, no images, logos or color.
- Consistent details. Write every city, date and title the same way throughout.
2026 Slow Water, Harbour Street Gallery, Portland, OR (solo)
2025 Painting Now, Riverside Arts Center, Sacramento, CA (catalogue)
2025 Small Works, Alder Gallery, Portland, OR
2023 Coast Range Biennial, Tamarack Museum of Art, Tacoma, WA.
Curated by Jo ReyesPress entries follow bibliography style: author, title of the article in quotation marks, name of the publication, then the date.
What does an artist CV template look like?
Copy the template below into a document, replace the placeholders, and delete the sections you do not need yet. Set exhibition titles in italics once it is in your word processor.
FIRST NAME LAST NAME b. YEAR, City, Country. Lives and works in City. [email protected] · www.example.com EDUCATION YEAR Degree, Subject, Institution, City SOLO EXHIBITIONS YEAR Title of Exhibition, Venue, City GROUP EXHIBITIONS YEAR Title of Exhibition, Venue, City. Curated by Name AWARDS, GRANTS AND RESIDENCIES YEAR Name of Award or Residency, Organization, City COLLECTIONS Name of Collection, City PRESS Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Publication, Day Month Year.
What does a finished artist CV look like? An example
This is a complete CV for a painter about ten years into her career. The artist, venues and publications are invented for this guide; the structure and formatting are what to copy.
MARA ELLISON b. 1989, Halifax, Canada. Lives and works in Portland, Oregon. [email protected] · www.example.com EDUCATION 2015 MFA, Painting, Northfield College of Art, Portland, OR 2011 BFA, Studio Art, Bayview University, Halifax, NS SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2026 Slow Water, Harbour Street Gallery, Portland, OR 2024 Field Notes, Linden Project Space, Seattle, WA 2022 The Long Room, Alder Gallery, Portland, OR SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2025 Painting Now, Riverside Arts Center, Sacramento, CA (catalogue) 2025 Small Works, Alder Gallery, Portland, OR 2023 Coast Range Biennial, Tamarack Museum of Art, Tacoma, WA. Curated by Jo Reyes 2021 Open Studio Annual, Eastbank Studios, Portland, OR 2019 New Graduates, Northfield College of Art Gallery, Portland, OR AWARDS, GRANTS AND RESIDENCIES 2025 Project Grant, Willamette Arts Fund, Portland, OR 2023 Artist in Residence, Tidewater Residency, Astoria, OR 2020 Emerging Artist Award, Northfield College of Art, Portland, OR COLLECTIONS Tamarack Museum of Art, Tacoma, WA Bayview University Art Collection, Halifax, NS Private collections in Canada and the United States PRESS Reyes, Jo. “Mara Ellison’s Slow Water.” Harbour Arts Review, 14 March 2026. Okafor, Dana. “Ten Painters to Watch.” Coast Art Quarterly, Fall 2024.
What do you put on an artist CV if you are just starting out?
A short CV is normal at the start, and readers of open calls and first applications expect it. Half a page that is accurate reads better than a full page that has been padded. These all count:
- Degree shows, student exhibitions and juried shows.
- Group shows in cafés, libraries, pop-up spaces and artist-run venues.
- Open studios and online exhibitions, named for what they were.
- Workshops, short courses and mentorships, under Education.
- Commissions, and publications that have reproduced your work.
- Art-related work: assisting an artist, staffing a gallery, teaching a class.
Do not relabel entries to sound larger. A group show listed as a solo exhibition, or a shop described as a gallery, is easy to check and hard to take back. Use plain headings such as “Exhibitions” until you have enough to split solo from group.
How do you keep an artist CV up to date?
Most CVs go stale because exhibitions are added from memory months later, when the exact title, the curator’s name and the dates are no longer to hand. Two habits fix that.
Keep one master CV. Put everything in it, and cut shorter versions from it for each application. Never edit a shortened copy and then forget which is the complete one.
Record each exhibition when it is confirmed. Write down the title, venue, city, opening and closing dates, curator, and which works are in it. The list of works is not printed on a CV, but it is what you will need when someone asks where a particular piece has been shown. This is the same record your art inventory keeps.
ArtieDB is art inventory software and a portfolio website for working artists. It keeps these records for you: each exhibition is entered once, with its title, venue, city, dates and the works shown, and your public portfolio includes an exhibition history page built from those entries. It covers the exhibition sections of a CV. Education, awards and press still belong in the document you send out.
Frequently asked questions
What is an artist CV?
An artist CV (curriculum vitae) is a document that lists an artist’s professional history in reverse chronological order: education, solo and group exhibitions, awards, grants, residencies, collections and press. Galleries, curators, juries and funders use it to see where an artist has shown and what recognition the work has received.
How long should an artist CV be?
As long as your career needs. An emerging artist’s CV is often less than a page, and an established artist’s runs to several. When an application asks for a résumé or sets a page limit, cut it down to one or two pages of selected entries and label the sections “Selected”.
What is the difference between an artist CV and an artist résumé?
A CV is the full record and keeps growing. An artist résumé is a shortened version of it, usually one or two pages, with selected exhibitions and awards chosen for a particular application. Both list entries newest first and use the same format.
Should I list every exhibition on my artist CV?
Keep every exhibition in a master CV. When the list gets long, show a selection under headings such as “Selected Group Exhibitions”, keeping solo exhibitions complete for as long as you can, and dropping older or minor group shows first.
Do I include my day job on an artist CV?
Only if it is art-related, such as teaching, curating, working as a studio assistant or fabricating for other artists. Unrelated employment is left off an artist CV. A gap in employment does not need explaining, because the document is a record of your work as an artist, not of your jobs.
How do I list an upcoming exhibition on my CV?
Put it at the top of the relevant section with its year and the word “forthcoming” or “upcoming” in brackets, once the exhibition is confirmed in writing. Remove the label after the show opens.
What file format should an artist CV be in?
Send a PDF unless the application says otherwise, so the layout looks the same on every screen. Use one plain typeface, no images or graphics, and a file name with your own name in it, such as Lastname_Firstname_CV.pdf.