An artist resume is a short, selective record of the experience that matters for a particular gallery, grant, residency, exhibition, open call, or creative job. You do not need to put everything you have ever done on it. The goal is to help the reviewer understand your relevant artistic experience quickly.
An artist CV is different. I think of the CV as the larger career record that grows over time, while the resume is the version I edit for the opportunity in front of me.
If you need to make one now, start with the template below. After that I have included examples for a gallery artist, an early-career artist, a commercial illustrator, and a full artist CV so you can see how the structure changes depending on the purpose.
Copyable Artist Resume Template
This is the version I would use as a starting point for a visual artist applying to galleries, grants, residencies, exhibitions, or similar opportunities.
Delete any section that does not apply to you. You do not need empty headings simply because another artist has them.
[YOUR NAME] [City, State or Country] [Professional email] | [Website or portfolio] SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS [Year] — [Exhibition Title], [Venue], [City, State/Country] [Year] — [Exhibition Title], [Venue], [City, State/Country] SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS [Year] — [Exhibition Title], [Venue], [City, State/Country] [Year] — [Exhibition Title], [Venue], [City, State/Country] EDUCATION [Degree or program], [Institution], [Location], [Year] RESIDENCIES [Year] — [Residency], [Organization], [Location] GRANTS AND AWARDS [Year] — [Grant or Award], [Organization] SELECTED COLLECTIONS [Institution or approved collection], [Location] SELECTED PRESS [Author]. "[Article or Review Title]." [Publication], [Year] RELATED EXPERIENCE [Role], [Organization], [Dates]
The order is flexible. If you have a strong exhibition record, I would put exhibitions near the top. If you are just graduating and your education is currently your strongest qualification, Education may come first.
The important thing is that the first half of the page contains the information most relevant to the person reviewing it.
Gallery Artist Resume Example
Here is a fictional example of a concise fine-art resume. The names, galleries, awards, and other credentials are invented for illustration. Never copy sample accomplishments into your own resume.
Jordan Lee
Brooklyn, New York
jordanlee@example.com | jordanleestudio.example
Selected Solo Exhibitions
- 2025 — Night Windows, Orchard Room Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
- 2023 — Passing Weather, Common Ground Arts, Richmond, VA
Selected Group Exhibitions
- 2025 — Peripheral Vision, Canal Street Project, New York, NY
- 2024 — New American Drawing, Meridian Arts Center, Baltimore, MD
- 2022 — Paper and Place, North Street Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Awards
- 2024 — City Artists Foundation Project Award
Selected Collections
- Meridian Arts Center, Baltimore, MD
- Private collections in New York, Virginia, and Maryland
Selected Press
- Adams, Priya. “Finding Structure in Passing Weather.” Atlantic Arts, September 2025
This example is intentionally restrained. A gallery reviewing your portfolio generally does not need unrelated employment, software skills, or every exhibition you have participated in if the strongest artistic credentials already establish the picture.
If the gallery also asks for narrative background, keep that separate. My artist bio examples show how the same career information can be turned into prose.
Artist Resume With Little or No Exhibition Experience
A short truthful resume is stronger than one padded with weak or invented credentials.
If you do not yet have solo exhibitions, awards, museum collections, or press, do not create empty sections for them. Use the artistic experience you actually have.
For example:
Avery Collins
Denver, Colorado
averycollins@example.com | averycollinsart.example
Education and Training
- 2026 — BFA, Drawing and Painting, Mountain State College, Denver, CO
- 2025 — Figure Drawing Intensive, Denver Community Arts Center
Selected Exhibitions and Projects
- 2026 — Senior Studio Exhibition, Mountain State College, Denver, CO
- 2025 — Open Studios, River District Arts Building, Denver, CO
- 2025 — Independent drawing series documenting neighborhood trees and construction sites
Related Experience
- Studio Assistant, Elena Park Studio, Denver, CO, 2025–2026
- Volunteer, River District Open Studios, 2024–2025
Materials and Processes
- Graphite, charcoal, ink, observational drawing, large-format works on paper
This tells the truth about where the artist is professionally while still giving a reviewer useful evidence of training, activity, and commitment.
A self-taught artist could replace Education with sections such as Selected Projects, Commissions, Workshops, Community Exhibitions, Studio Experience, or other relevant work.
Commercial or Freelance Artist Resume Example
A resume for an illustrator, concept artist, designer, animator, or other commercial creative role should usually look more like a conventional employment resume than a gallery CV.
The reviewer needs to understand what you did, who you worked with when that information can be shared, what kinds of projects you handled, and which skills are relevant to the role.
Sam Rivera
Atlanta, Georgia
samrivera@example.com | samriveracreative.example
Professional Summary
Illustrator and concept artist with seven years of experience developing editorial, advertising, and entertainment artwork from initial sketches through final delivery.
Experience
- Freelance Illustrator, Atlanta, GA | 2021–Present
Develop editorial illustrations, campaign artwork, concepts, revisions, and final production-ready assets for agency, publishing, and direct clients. - Staff Illustrator, Northstar Creative, Atlanta, GA | 2018–2021
Collaborated with art directors, designers, and copywriters on storyboards, digital campaigns, branded illustration systems, and new-business pitches.
Selected Projects
- Created a 12-image editorial series for a regional travel publication, 2025
- Developed character concepts and presentation artwork for a national campaign pitch, 2024
Skills
- Concept development, digital illustration, storyboarding, visual research, client presentations, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Procreate
Education
- BFA, Illustration, Southern School of Art, Savannah, GA, 2018
For an employer-facing resume submitted through a hiring portal, I would keep headings conventional and avoid putting essential information inside decorative graphics or image-heavy layouts.
If you are building the business side of an independent illustration career instead, see my illustration business guide.
When You Need an Artist CV Instead
A CV is useful when the organization wants a fuller record of your artistic or academic activity rather than a tightly selected one- or two-page summary.
NYFA describes a CV as a detailed list of accomplishments, while an artist resume is something that can be adjusted for specific opportunities.
A visual artist CV may eventually contain:
- education and substantial training
- solo exhibitions
- two-person and group exhibitions
- residencies
- grants, awards, and fellowships
- museum, public, institutional, or corporate collections
- commissions and public art
- bibliography and press
- publications you authored
- teaching
- lectures and panels
- curatorial work
- professional service
You may not need all of those headings. Your CV should reflect the career you actually have.
NYFA’s artist resume guidance is also useful if you want another professional reference for deciding which sections belong in the document.
Artist CV Example
This fictional sample shows how the same information expands when the goal is a longer professional record rather than a one-page application resume.
Maya Ortiz
Los Angeles, California
mayaortiz@example.com | mayaortizstudio.example
Education
- 2018 — MFA, Studio Art, Western Pacific University, Los Angeles, CA
- 2013 — BFA, Painting, Desert State College, Tucson, AZ
Solo Exhibitions
- 2025 — After the Dry Season, Harbor Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
- 2023 — Field Notes, Mesa Project Room, Phoenix, AZ
- 2021 — Borrowed Light, Northline Arts Center, Portland, OR
Selected Group Exhibitions
- 2025 — Material Memory, Coastline Museum of Art, Santa Cruz, CA
- 2024 — New Ecologies, Juniper Art Space, Denver, CO
- 2022 — Small Works Annual, East Yard Gallery, Austin, TX
Residencies
- 2024 — Visiting Artist, Arroyo Field Station, Marfa, TX
- 2020 — Artist in Residence, Rainshadow Arts Lab, Astoria, OR
Grants and Awards
- 2025 — Regional Visual Arts Project Grant
- 2021 — Emerging Artist Materials Award
Selected Collections
- Coastline Museum of Art, Santa Cruz, CA
- Western Pacific University Art Collection, Los Angeles, CA
Bibliography
- Rivera, Lena. “Maya Ortiz and the Landscape of Memory.” Western Arts Review, October 2025
- Chen, David. “Studio Visit: Material, Place, and Repetition.” Fieldwork Journal, May 2023
Teaching and Lectures
- 2025 — Guest Lecturer, “Building a Place-Based Studio Practice,” Western Pacific University
- 2022–2024 — Workshop Instructor, Experimental Drawing, Mesa Community Arts
Make a Master CV Before You Keep Rewriting Resumes
One system makes this much easier: keep one private master CV containing everything.
Whenever you have an exhibition, receive a grant, complete a residency, give a lecture, publish something, teach a workshop, or finish another relevant professional activity, add it to the master document.
Then, when an application requests a one-page or two-page artist resume, make a copy and remove what does not support that opportunity.
That is much easier than reconstructing your career from old emails every time you apply for something.
What Belongs Near the Top Changes With the Application
There is no universal order that every artist must follow.
For a gallery: exhibitions, collections, residencies, awards, and relevant press may deserve the most attention.
For a grant: highlight experience that supports your ability to complete the proposed project, such as related work, commissions, grants, partnerships, exhibitions, or residencies.
For a residency: bring forward work, research, previous programs, technical skills, or community activity that connects naturally to the residency.
For a teaching position: education, teaching experience, courses, workshops, lectures, exhibitions, publications, and service may all become more important.
For a commercial creative job: professional experience, selected projects, responsibilities, technical skills, collaboration, and results should usually move ahead of your exhibition history.
If the opportunity also asks you to describe a proposed project, keep that writing separate from the resume. My artist proposal examples show what that document needs to accomplish.
How to Format Exhibition Entries
Consistency matters more than choosing one supposedly perfect format.
You could write an exhibition entry like this:
2026 — Animal Studies, Fieldhouse Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Or:
Animal Studies, Fieldhouse Gallery, Atlanta, GA, 2026
Either system can work. Pick one and use the same order throughout the document.
Within each section, reverse chronological order is usually the easiest to scan because the most recent activity appears first.
Press and Publications Are Not the Same Section
This distinction causes unnecessary confusion.
Bibliography, press, or selected press generally contains material other people have written or produced about you and your artwork: reviews, interviews, profiles, catalog essays, and similar coverage.
Publications can be used for books, essays, articles, research, or other material you authored or created yourself.
If you only have one or two entries, you may not need both headings. As the record grows, separating them makes the CV clearer.
Keep the Resume Visually Quiet
Your artwork belongs in the portfolio. The resume itself usually benefits from restraint.
- Use a readable typeface.
- Make section headings easy to scan.
- Keep spacing consistent.
- Avoid shrinking the type just to force another ten entries onto the page.
- Keep dates and punctuation consistent.
- Test every email address and website link.
- Export a clean PDF unless another file type is requested.
If your visual presentation needs work, the portfolio itself matters far more than decorating the resume. My artist website examples show several ways artists organize their work online.
Do Not Turn the Resume Into an Artist Statement
A fine-art resume is primarily a factual document.
An exhibition entry usually does not need a paragraph explaining what the show meant. An award does not need promotional language describing how prestigious it was. A residency entry does not need your entire project proposal underneath it.
Give each application document its own job.
Your artist statement can explain the ideas and process behind the work. Your artist bio can turn relevant career history into a concise narrative. Your resume or CV records the experience in a form someone can scan quickly.
Before You Send It
I would do one final pass specifically for accuracy rather than style.
- Use the document type and page length the application requested.
- Check the official spelling of every gallery, institution, award, residency, publication, and exhibition.
- Make sure every date agrees with your website, bio, and other application materials.
- Remove empty sections.
- Remove older or unrelated entries when space is limited.
- Check that your email address and portfolio URL work.
- Open the final PDF and proofread that version, not only the editable document.
- Give the file a clear name such as Firstname-Lastname-Artist-Resume.pdf.
The goal is not to create the longest document possible. It is to make the reviewer understand the strongest, most relevant parts of your experience with as little friction as possible.
For the other documents that often accompany an artist resume, continue with my artist bio examples, artist statement examples, artist proposal examples, or the main artist resources page.