An artist's statement is a succinct explanation of your creative and professional goals as an artist; it should also provide the reader with a brief insight into what informs and inspires the art present in the rest of the portfolio. Generally an artist's statement runs from 1-5 pages, and many consider brevity to be an asset.
Artists' statements are most commonly used in fine art portfolios, particularly image-based portfolios within the fine art and photography fields, where work is not necessarily being created with a client in mind. Fine artists' statements tend to focus on how the artist's philosophies inform or reflect their work, as well as motivations for creating such art. Many artists include a statement for each series of work they produce, in order to help their viewer understand their specific choice of subject matter and medium.
In a portfolio, the artist's statement works largely to illustrate the larger goals of the artist. This allows a buyer and/or potential employer to see the potential directions the artist may take as they progress creatively.
External Links[]
Tim Long of the Portfolio Center at Columbia College Chicago wrote an excellent article, Bios and Artist's Statements for Web Portfolios
"A Guide to Bio Writing for Performance Artists" by Jamie O'Reilly