How to Write an Artist Statement for Competitions and Exhibitions (With Examples)

An artist statement is the only part of a submission that speaks for the work in words. In a competition it is read beside the image, quickly, by someone who has already formed a first impression from the picture. A good statement confirms and sharpens that impression. A weak one spends the juror’s attention on things the image already says, or on things it never needed to say.

This guide covers what an artist statement is, how it differs from a bio and a CV, what a juror actually takes from it, and how to write one that works on an entry form, on an exhibition wall and in a portfolio.

What an artist statement is, and what it is not

A statement is about the work: what you make, how you make it, and why it takes the form it does. It is usually written in the present tense and the first person.

• Artist statement: about the work — what it is, what it is doing, why it looks the way it does.
• Artist bio: about you — where you are based, how you trained, where you have shown. Short, and usually in the third person.
• Artist CV: a record — exhibitions, awards and publications in reverse chronological order, with no prose at all. We cover it in How to Write an Artist CV.

The most common mistake is writing the bio and calling it a statement. “I have painted since childhood and studied at…” tells a juror about a life. It tells them nothing about the canvas in front of them.

What a juror actually reads

At Curatone.art every entry is scored independently by each juror on a ten-point scale, as the competition rules set out, and no juror sees another’s score. Many serious competitions work the same way, and it shapes how a statement is read.

A juror scoring alone looks at the image first. The statement is then read for two things: whether it explains a decision the juror noticed, and whether it connects the work to the theme when the connection is not obvious from the picture. Everything else is skimmed. In practice, the first two sentences carry almost all of the weight.

That gives a simple test for every sentence you write: would a juror looking at this image be glad to know it?

A four-sentence structure that fits most entry forms

Most competition forms allow somewhere between 50 and 150 words. Four sentences fit comfortably and cover what a reader needs:

1. What it is. The subject or situation, stated plainly.
2. The decision. The choice in the work a viewer should notice: a material, a crop, a colour, a process.
3. Why. What that decision does, or what it was reaching for.
4. The connection. How the work answers the theme or the call, if that is not self-evident.

In that order, the statement moves from what the juror can see to what they cannot, which is exactly the direction their attention travels.

Weak and strong versions, side by side

The examples below were written for this guide. They are not by real artists.

A painting

Weak: My work explores the complex relationship between memory, identity and the passage of time, inviting viewers to reflect on their own experiences.

Stronger: A kitchen table painted from memory, then repainted from a photograph of the same table twenty years later. Both versions stay visible: the earlier layer shows through where I sanded the surface back. The painting is about how the remembered room and the real one disagree, and I wanted the disagreement to be physical rather than described.

The first version could sit beside almost any artwork ever made. The second can only describe one.

A photograph

Weak: This photograph captures a beautiful moment of light and shadow in the city.

Stronger: Taken at 6:40 in the morning from the same doorway on thirty consecutive days; this is the only frame in which the delivery van did not block the light. I kept the van’s shadow at the left edge, because it is the reason the series exists.

Mixed media

Weak: Using a variety of materials, I push the boundaries of traditional art forms.

Stronger: Hospital gauze stitched over a printed map of the town where my grandmother trained as a nurse. The thread follows the bus routes she used; where the gauze is thickest, the routes overlap.

How long it should be

• Competition entry form: 50–150 words, or whatever the form allows and not a word more. When a limit is given, jurors have calibrated their reading to it.
• Exhibition wall text: 40–80 words. It is read standing up.
• Portfolio or website: 150–300 words about the practice as a whole rather than a single piece. Our guide to building an artist portfolio covers where it sits.

Mistakes that cost attention

• Jargon. “Liminal”, “interrogates”, “the discourse of”. Jurors read hundreds of these, and they convey nothing specific.
• Biography. Save it for the bio.
• Explaining the obvious. If the painting is blue, the juror can see that.
• Telling the viewer what to feel. “The viewer will be moved by…” makes a claim the work then has to prove.
• One statement for every competition. The fourth sentence, the connection to the theme, has to be rewritten each time.

A template to start from

Use it to get a first draft down, then cut anything that could describe someone else’s work.

[Title] is a [medium] of [subject, plainly]. I [the decision a viewer will notice]. I did this because [what the decision does]. For [the competition or theme], it [the connection, if it needs saying].

Before you submit

Read the statement with the image beside it, the way a juror will, and strike every sentence the image already says. What is left should be short, specific, and impossible to attach to anyone else’s work.

Two other things decide how the image itself is received: how it was photographed, and what the jury is scoring. When the statement is ready, the current open calls list what each competition asks for.