A well prepared CV is the corner stone of any application, but unlike financial advisors, marketeers and other professionals, artists can’t really do much with the standard form that so many others use — aka. we usually aren’t employed anywhere and McDonalds doesn’t really count. 

So, for the love of god, no Europass or other automatic service. There is no place for them in the art world — unless your trying to get an internship at a gallery as the coffee delivery person. 

But with that out of the way, let’s point out the fact that there is no one perfect CV that you can use for everything, but if you make a good one, you can always rearrange it so that it can be used for practically any application imaginable. In the end, what a CV boils down to is a statement — a message about who you are and what you are about:

A CV should be as short as it can be, while still being able to present you and your work in the best light possible. If you only have two or three exhibitions under your belt, obviously this won’t be a problem, but if you’ve gathered up quite a few shows and even some awards or prizes, the important thing is to keep it short.

Because it’s harder to get a good solo show — especially at the beginning — it’s probably not going to be hard to fit them on one page. Group exhibitions on the other hand aren’t as hard to come by and if you have more than you could easily fit on the same page, it’s best to make a selection.

You can see this in most professional artist’s portfolios, they have a section titled Solo exhibitions, and then one that says Selected group exhibition. With both, the point is to filter out anything that looks out of place.

For example: if all you have are a few exhibitions at various youth centres or artist led spaces and a degree show, put all of them on your CV (while not enough to really apply for a gallery, such a CV can be invaluable when trying to get artist residencies and other exhibitions).

But if over time you get shows in bigger galleries, art festivals or fairs, it may be time to scratch youth centres off you CV — they don’t just fill up valuable space, but can potentially provide negative connotations to other, bigger shows you have had in the past.

Not that youth centres aren’t great, but it’s like me winning 1st place in arrow shooting at camp Kozelj when I was 10 — there was a time for it, and it was a proud and wonderful moment indeed, but I’m not going to mention it on any job application.

Have a clean, but distinctly looking portfolio — it has to stand out form the crowd, but also be a good representation of who you are and wha your art is all about. 

Here, I think the best way is to just ask yourself what kind of message you want to communicate. If all of your work is over the top and kitsch-related and you have a lifetime membership card to Rhinestones Emporium’s VIP section, a clean looking portfolio might actually not be the point.

While I still believe in bureaucratic procedures (although I despise them immensely) — meaning CVs should preferably follow certain rules of content and design — you can try to experiment with yours; though if you do, the main thing to keep in mind is to go all in or not even try — the middle ground is never a good place to be and it’ll just look like you were trying too hard. 

Don’t forget your artist statement. An artist’s CV should have their artist statement somewhere, because it gives gallerists the ability to spot bullshit a mile away. A good artist statement is succinct and to the point and the only truly creative part of a CV — apart from the optional, but I believe important, About section:

I find an About section gives my CV a bit more of a human character and a little context, well, about who I am. I know many colleagues that don’t use it, but for me it’s an important part.

Here you could tell a brief description of what makes you tick — I focus on my goals and views connected to the art market and my work with Surviving Art. For you it might be an emotional, personal narrative or your philosophical view; the main point is to keep it simple, short and think about what kind of language you use, because even the choice of our words communicates a lot about who we are. 

Lastly it’s the exhibition portfolio itself, and here I just want to dissect the usual way information about exhibitions is presented. For example:

2017 Pensar Barroco (Thinking Baroque) by Art Map, Museu de Imagem, Braga, Portugal.

Dates first (starting with the latest), because it’s just easier to go though if all exhibitions are in chronological order — you can use exact dates, but I like to just state years as it looks much cleaner as a whole. 

Then the name of the exhibition and possible mentions of curators or  producers of the show in cursive (I always use the original name and add an English translation, because a lot of my shows aren’t in English speaking countries), name of the venue and location (with country at the end).

In the end, the amount of amazing shows and awards in your CV matters less than how you present it. Well, not entirely, but it’s what a bureaucrat would say and as I feel like one today, it seemed like a good ending remark. Truth be told though: focus on getting out there as much as you can, all of this is just paper feed for the machine in the end!

(You can also download my CV here, if you’d like to see how what I yap about looks in real life.)