Artist CV: Format, Template and Example Entries
In short
An artist CV is a structured, reverse-chronological record of your professional life as an artist: education, exhibitions, residencies, awards, collections and publications. It lists facts, not opinions, and every entry follows the same format.
This article gives the standard section order, a template you can copy, example entry formats and advice for an early-career CV. It ends with where the CV belongs: on your website, next to the work it documents.
What an Artist CV Is — and How It Differs From a Résumé
An artist CV records your activity as an artist; a résumé summarises your employment.
Galleries, juries, residencies and grant panels ask for an artist CV to see the public life of your work at a glance. It answers: where has this work been shown, who has supported it, and where is it now?
A general résumé is built for employers and focuses on jobs and skills. An artist CV leaves out unrelated jobs and lists only art-related activity. In some countries "artist résumé" means a shortened CV of one or two pages; the structure is the same.
The CV also differs from two documents it usually travels with. The artist statement is about your work in your own words. The bio is a short third-person summary of who you are. The CV is the list behind both.
Artist CV Format: The Sections in Order
Use only the sections you can fill, and keep them in this order.
- Name and contact: full professional name, website, email, city and country. Birth year and place are optional.
- Education: degrees and relevant study, with institution, city and year.
- Solo exhibitions.
- Group exhibitions. Early in a career, combine 3 and 4 as "Selected Exhibitions".
- Residencies.
- Awards, grants and fellowships.
- Collections: public and corporate collections; private collectors only with their permission.
- Publications and press: reviews, interviews and catalogues about your work.
- Talks, teaching and workshops.
- Representation: galleries that currently represent you, if any.
Within each section, list entries in reverse chronological order: the most recent first.
An Artist CV Template You Can Copy
Copy this structure, delete the sections you cannot fill, and keep every entry in the same format.
[Full Name]
[Website] · [Email] · [City, Country]
Education
[Year] — [Degree], [Institution], [City]
Solo Exhibitions
[Year] — [Exhibition title], [Venue], [City]
Group Exhibitions
[Year] — [Exhibition title], [Venue], [City]
Residencies
[Year] — [Residency name], [City, Country]
Awards and Grants
[Year] — [Award or grant], [Awarding organisation]
Collections
[Collection name], [City]
Publications and Press
[Year] — [Author], "[Article title]", [Publication]
Talks and Workshops
[Year] — [Talk title], [Host organisation], [City]
Prefer to start from a file? Make your own copy of this template in Google Docs, then fill in your entries and export it as a PDF.
How to Format Entries
Consistency is what makes a CV readable; pick one format and use it everywhere.
- Year first, at the start of every line, so the eye can scan down the left edge.
- Exhibition titles in italics, venues and cities in plain text.
- One line per entry. Move descriptions to your website or statement.
- Online exhibitions are listed like any other, with the organiser and the year; add "(online)" after the venue.
- Mark curated or juried shows when it matters: "(curated by [Name])" or "(juried)".
- Same spelling of names across your CV, website and applications.
Save the CV as a PDF named with your name, such as firstname-lastname-cv.pdf. Keep an editable copy so updates take minutes, not hours.
Artist CV With Little Experience
An early-career CV is short, accurate and grows with every entry; it does not need padding.
Use "Selected Exhibitions" as one section and include what genuinely counts: graduation and student shows, group exhibitions, artist-run spaces, juried open calls and curated online exhibitions.
Add education, workshops and relevant study. If you have taught, given a talk or had work published, list it in its own section.
Do not invent weight. Juries read many CVs and recognise padding quickly. A short, honest CV with a strong portfolio is more convincing than a long list of minor entries. Open calls are the fastest way to add real lines; see our list of open calls for digital artists.
Where Your CV Should Live
Your website is where a curator checks your CV against the work itself.
An application CV is read once. A CV on your website is read every time someone looks you up after an exhibition, a fair or a portfolio review. Put it on your Biography or About page, with a downloadable PDF for applications.
On a Digital Original website, each work has its own page, so a curator can move from a line in your CV to the works themselves. Your website, your CV and your applications then tell the same story under your own name.
Before you send the next application, check that the site a juror will open is ready with the artist website checklist.
Keep your CV next to the work it documents on a professional artist website.
