Guides for artists
How to organise your work, document it and present it. Written for the artist working alone, with verified facts and no filler.
Organise your work
The base for everything else.
- 5 min read
What Artium is: art inventory for visual artists
What Artium does, which documents it produces, what it costs and why it exists. The home page pitch, on a page you can read slowly.
- 5 min read
How to keep an inventory of your art
A practical guide for artists: numbering, status, editions, and how to catch up when you already have hundreds of pieces unrecorded.
Exhibit
From install to getting the word out.
- 5 min read
How to make wall labels for an exhibition
What goes on a wall label, what size, where to place them, and why adding a QR code is worth the small effort.
- 5 min read
How to promote an art exhibition: before, during and after
What to send and when, how to give the show a page of its own, what to do on opening night, and how to keep it working once it has closed.
Sell
The paperwork for every sale.
- 4 min read
How to make a certificate of authenticity
What it must contain, what it is actually worth, what paper to use, and what changes when the work is an edition.
- 5 min read
How to record the sale of an artwork: receipt, invoice and certificate
What to write down when you sell a piece, which papers the buyer gets, the difference between a receipt and an invoice, and how never to sell the same work twice.
Present yourself
What you send when someone asks to see your work.
- 4 min read
How to put together an artist portfolio PDF
What a portfolio needs, how many pieces to include, whether prices belong in it, and how to build one without losing an afternoon.
- 6 min read
Artist CV: how to write one, with a full example
What sections an artist CV needs, how to order exhibitions, a complete example to copy, and what to do if you are just starting out.
- 5 min read
Artist online portfolio: why it matters and how to set one up
What sets a portfolio apart from an Instagram feed, what it should show, and how to turn it on and share it in five minutes.