Writing Artist Bionotes Is Hard Work

In a recent project I was involved in, I was requested to provide a longer and more detailed artist bio.

- LEVI MASULI

This is not the first time that I got such a request; the bios I provide are usually rather sparse, since they only describe what I do and nothing else.

This made me curious about this contemporary exhibit staple. Usually manifesting as a short biography and description of a person accompanying their work, sometimes written by the person themselves, the artist bio and its structural entanglements have been largely overlooked.

Surely, self-descriptions have existed since time immemorial, but the modern bio likely emerged along with the rise of commercial marketing. Around the start of the 20th century, books began featuring words of praise (blurbs) and well-written descriptions of the authors on the back cover.

The bio-as-marketing-copy further developed through the financialization of art and through modern media, both of which began treating art as merchandise and the artist as brand.

Bios have the practical function of allowing artists to navigate their fields through constant self-recalibration. Today, some even tend to their artist bios as grounds to cultivate, for instance, queer identities. The artist bio is part of the scaffolding that allows "the artist"—itself a social-commercial form—to construct the myth of their practice.