The Short Answer
A professional artist CV for galleries and residencies includes:
- Exhibitions — solo and group, reverse chronological
- Education — most recent first
- Residencies — if applicable
- Awards and grants — if applicable
- Collections — if applicable
- Publications and press — if applicable
It should fit on one to two pages.
It should be in reverse chronological order throughout.
It should contain no photographs, no color, no decorative elements.
For the full portfolio structure this CV fits into, see:
https://myartpdf.app/artist-portfolio-pdf
What an Artist CV Is — and What It Is Not
An artist CV is not a job application CV.
It does not include:
- previous employment outside art
- a personal summary or objective statement
- skills sections (software, languages, etc.)
- a photograph
- references
An artist CV is a structured record of your professional art activity.
Its purpose is to help curators, selectors and committees understand your exhibition history, education and recognition at a glance.
Nothing more.
Why Format Matters as Much as Content
Selection committees scan CVs quickly.
A CV that is hard to read — inconsistent formatting, unclear sections, mixed chronological order — signals carelessness regardless of the content.
A CV that is clean and predictable lets the content speak.
The format is not decoration.
It is a professional signal.
The Standard Artist CV Structure
Most institutions expect this order:
- Name and contact — at the top
- Exhibitions — solo first, then group
- Education
- Residencies
- Awards and grants
- Collections
- Publications and press
Not every section applies to every artist.
Only include sections you can populate with real entries.
An empty section is worse than a missing one.
If you want to build the CV instead of formatting it manually, use the free Artist CV Generator.
Name and Contact Information
At the top of the CV, include:
- Full name — the name you exhibit under
- City and country — where you are currently based
- Email address
- Website — if you have one
Do not include your full postal address.
Do not include your phone number unless specifically requested.
Keep it to three or four lines.
Exhibitions
This is the most important section of the artist CV.
Solo exhibitions come first, then group exhibitions.
Within each category, list in reverse chronological order — most recent first.
Standard format for each entry:
Year, Exhibition title, Venue, City
Example:
2024, Threshold Studies, Ratio 3, San Francisco
2023, Interior with No Doors, Document, Chicago
What to include:
- gallery exhibitions
- museum exhibitions
- institutional shows
- artist-run space exhibitions
- curated group shows
What to omit:
- open submissions with no curatorial selection
- student shows (unless early in career)
- online-only exhibitions (unless significant)
For emerging artists with few exhibitions:
list everything relevant. Selectors understand short CVs.
What matters is whether the existing activity is coherent.
Education
List in reverse chronological order.
Standard format:
Year, Degree, Institution, City
Example:
2017, MFA Painting, Yale School of Art, New Haven
2014, BFA Painting, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence
Include:
- art school degrees
- relevant postgraduate study
- significant workshops or intensives (optional, at the bottom of the section)
Do not include:
- secondary education
- non-art degrees unless directly relevant to your practice
Residencies
List in reverse chronological order.
Standard format:
Year, Program name, Location
Example:
2021, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito
2019, MacDowell, Peterborough
Residencies carry significant weight in applications — especially for other residency programs.
A history of residencies signals that your practice has been supported and recognized by peers.
Awards and Grants
List in reverse chronological order.
Standard format:
Year, Award name, Granting organization
Example:
2022, Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, Joan Mitchell Foundation
2021, Individual Artist Fellowship, California Arts Council
Include:
- grants
- fellowships
- prizes
- commissions (if significant)
Do not inflate this section with minor prizes or certificates.
Collections
List institutions or significant private collections that hold your work.
Standard format:
Institution or collector name, City
Example:
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
For emerging artists, this section is often absent.
That is normal. Omit it entirely rather than listing minor acquisitions.
Publications and Press
List reviews, catalogue essays, interviews and significant online coverage.
Standard format:
Year, "Article title", Publication, Author (optional)
Example:
2024, "Sloane Whitfield at Ratio 3", Artforum
2023, Interior with No Doors (exhibition catalogue), Document, Chicago
Keep this section selective.
One strong review in a known publication is worth more than ten minor mentions.
Formatting Rules
These rules apply regardless of the CV's content.
Chronological order:
Always reverse chronological within each section. Most recent first, always.
Consistency:
Use the same format for every entry within a section.
If you italicize exhibition titles, italicize all of them.
If you include the city for one entry, include it for all.
Length:
One to two pages maximum.
If your CV exceeds two pages, curate it — remove older or less significant entries.
Typography:
One typeface. No bold headings within entries. No color.
Section titles in caps or slightly larger — but only to separate sections, not to decorate.
No photograph:
Artist CVs do not include a photograph of the artist.
No skills section:
Software, languages and other skills belong in a job CV, not an art CV.
The Artist CV vs the Artist Biography
These two documents are often confused.
The CV is a structured list of professional activity.
The biography is a short prose introduction to the artist and practice.
They serve different purposes and should never be merged into one document.
Most portfolio PDFs include both.
For guidance on the biography, read:
https://myartpdf.app/guides/how-to-write-an-artist-biography-for-a-portfolio/
Where the CV Goes in the Portfolio PDF
The CV appears after the statement and biography, before the artworks.
Standard order:
- Cover page
- Artist statement
- Biography
- CV
- Selected artworks
Placing the CV after the biography means the reviewer already has a human introduction to the artist before scanning the professional history.
For the complete portfolio structure, read:
https://myartpdf.app/blog/artist-portfolio-format-2026/
Common Artist CV Mistakes
In order of frequency:
- Including non-art employment — irrelevant and distracting
- Chronological order instead of reverse chronological — forces the reader to scroll to find current work
- Inconsistent formatting — different formats for different entries signal lack of attention
- CV longer than two pages — hard to scan, often padded
- Missing city or venue information — entries without location are harder to verify and feel incomplete
- Combining solo and group exhibitions in one list — makes the CV harder to read at a glance
- Including a photograph — not standard in artist CVs
- Omitting the education section entirely — even for mid-career artists, education provides useful context
Why I Built MyArtPDF
Building a CV inside a portfolio tool rather than a separate document editor solves one persistent problem: consistency.
When the CV is part of the same workflow as the statement, biography and artworks, the typography and formatting are handled automatically.
No copy-pasting into InDesign.
No reformatting when the layout shifts.
The CV looks like it belongs in the same document as the rest of the portfolio — because it does.
All offline, with no login and no tracking.
You can read more about this philosophy here:
https://myartpdf.app/manifesto
Try MyArtPDF
If you'd like to build a portfolio with a clean, integrated CV:
https://myartpdf.app/#early-access
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Author
I'm Alexandre Desane — visual artist & indie developer.
I build quiet tools for artists.