A gallerist receiving your materials has one question in the first thirty seconds: does this artist have consistent work and can I tell what it’s about? If the answer isn’t immediate, they move to the next profile.

A press kit for visual arts is different from one for a musician or a dance company. The visual arts sector has its own formats, its own expectations, and its own habitual mistakes.

How a visual artist’s press kit differs

Portfolio vs. EPK

The portfolio is the complete catalogue of your work: all series, all pieces, the progression over time. The EPK is a curated selection that responds to a specific context: approaching a particular gallery, applying for a residency, submitting a grant application.

A 200-page portfolio sent unfiltered is a poor presentation. A 15-image EPK selected for that specific context is professional.

Artistic CV vs. bio

In the visual arts world, the artistic CV (list of solo exhibitions, group shows, awards, collections) carries more weight than the narrative bio. Both document a trajectory, but the CV emphasises verifiable facts and the bio contextualises the work.

For gallerists and curators: CV first, bio to complement. For press and general audiences: bio first.

What a visual arts EPK needs

Artist statement (100–300 words)

The text that explains why you make what you make: what problem, question or obsession drives the work. It’s not a description of the pieces (the images do that) — it’s the conceptual frame that makes them legible.

The most common mistake: an artist statement so abstract it could apply to any artist. Specificity is required: which materials you use, why those materials specifically, what dialogue your work establishes with its social, cultural or physical context.

High-resolution artwork images

Minimum 10–15 representative images of the series or series you’re presenting. Each image must include: title, year, medium, dimensions (in cm), and if possible the installation context (gallery view).

Technical format: JPG, minimum 3000px on the long side, 300 dpi. With a clear licence for editorial use (gallerists and press need to be able to use them for exhibition promotion).

The photographic quality of the work matters as much as the work itself. A strong painting poorly photographed communicates that the artist doesn’t manage their work professionally.

Artistic CV

Ordered from most recent to oldest:

  • Solo exhibitions: title, gallery or venue, year, city
  • Group exhibitions: title, curator if relevant, venue, year, city
  • Awards and grants: institution, year
  • Artist residencies: space, country, year
  • Collections: if work is held in public or institutional collections

Don’t include every student collective or informal pop-up show. Select what carries weight for the context you’re presenting to.

Critical texts or press coverage (if available)

If there are published texts about your work (catalogue essays, specialist press, art magazine reviews), include them or reference them. A text by a recognised curator or a review in a specialist publication validates the work for new interlocutors.

If you don’t have any, don’t create an empty section. It will come.

Contact and representation

Direct email or your representative’s or gallery’s details if you have them. For artists without gallery representation: a professional email (ideally on your own domain, not a generic Gmail). And your professional social accounts if you use them (artist Instagram, website).

The artist statement: the hardest element to write

The artist statement is the document that takes the most time and that most artists abandon half-written. Why? Because it forces verbal articulation of what is often intuitive, visual or physical.

Some questions to build one:

  • What problem or question does your work articulate? (Not “I explore light and the body” — be specific: which light, which body, why)
  • Which materials do you use and why exactly those? Material is never neutral.
  • What context does your work dialogue with? (Artistic tradition, social situation, territory)
  • What do you want a visitor or collector to take away?

Write it first in first person for yourself. Then adapt to third person for contexts that require it.

For residencies and grants: a different EPK

Residency and grant applications typically ask, in addition to a standard EPK, for a specific project proposal: what you want to do at that residency or what you would fund with that grant. In this case, the base press kit is the starting point, but you need to add:

  • Description of the proposed project (objectives, methodology, expected outcomes)
  • Itemised budget (if the call requires it)
  • Motivation letter specific to that residency or institution

The most common mistake is sending the generic press kit without adapting it to the context. Residencies look for artists for whom that specific environment makes sense, not the best artists in the abstract.

To understand the basics of EPKs before this, read What is an EPK and why you need one.

If you’d like help building your press kit for an upcoming application, tell us about your project.