At Agora Gallery we’re always on hand to give our artists advice and support, and because of this we get to know the sorts of things that artists frequently find difficult. One of the common problems arises when it is time to compose an artist statement. These are useful for letting your audience know more about you in all sorts of contexts — art fairs, catalogs, local media. Agora Gallery uses artist statements as part of the promotional material for each artist.

You might think that because an artist statement is a form of self-expression, and more particularly is directly related to the ideas, inspirations and motivations of the artist, that it writing it would be an easy task. It’s just writing about what you do naturally. But at Agora Gallery we’ve noticed that many artists do not find this as simple as you’d think — the kind of thought process and creative effort involved in this kind of writing is different to the kind they use when creating works. Even artists who use words or poetry in their art sometimes have trouble with artist statements.

The reason is, at least in part, that it is genuinely challenging to sum up something important to you in a relatively short number of words. Often, it’s hard to know even where to begin. How can you put down on paper the essence of what moves you as an artist?

While the difficulty is real, there are several things that can help. For one thing, you do not need to write the statement all by yourself. For example, a staff member at Agora Gallery reviews the information sent in by the artist, by email, post or through telephone conversations, and from this is able to put together the basis of an artist statement. The artist then works with Agora Gallery to make sure that says just what they mean it to say.

Even if you’re not in a position to get someone else to help craft the first draft, you can involve trusted friends and family members in the process — ask their opinion, talk over what you want to say beforehand to get it clear in your head, and narrow down what is really important to you as an artist. You can also get someone to read over what you have written to check for flow and grammar. This is important, and something we are careful about at Agora Gallery; poor flow and bad grammar put a reader off even when they might be interested in what you have to say.

Giving yourself time can also be a help — give it a while to brew in your mind, and when you have ideas ready, sit down with a pen and paper to make a list of what matters to you to get in the statement. Then you can wait again to see if that changes, and only then put pen to paper for the real thing.

The main thing to remember, if you’re having trouble, is not to worry. At Agora Gallery we’ve seen plenty of artists in the same position — and they always come out on top in the end!

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