An artist website should give a visitor three things quickly: a clear encounter with the work, enough context to understand the practice, and an obvious way to continue the conversation. Behind that simple experience sits a well-organised record of works, exhibitions, texts and credits.
The aim is not to reproduce the entire studio on a screen. It is to create a dependable point of reference for the people who will look the artist up next: a curator after a recommendation, a collector after an opening, a writer on deadline, a gallery preparing a proposal, or a student beginning research.
The short answer
At minimum, an artist website should include:
- A considered selection of current and representative work.
- Project or series pages with complete artwork information.
- A concise biography and an up-to-date CV.
- Current, forthcoming and selected past exhibitions.
- Press, essays, interviews and publications.
- Clear gallery, studio or representation contact details.
- Accurate image captions, credits and copyright information.
- A structure that works on a phone and does not depend on social media.
- A named process for keeping every part current.
That ninth point is the one most checklists miss. A website can launch with all the right pages and still become unreliable within a year. Its long-term usefulness depends on who is responsible for changing it when the practice changes.
Begin with the visitor, not the menu
Before deciding on page names, ask what a serious visitor needs to accomplish.
A curator may need to understand the arc of the practice, check whether a work belongs to a particular series and download a current CV. A writer may need the correct spelling of a title, an image credit and a press contact. A collector may want to see recent work and know which gallery to approach. A museum team may be looking for an exhibition history, collection credit or technical detail.
These are different journeys, but they rely on the same qualities: clarity, confidence and a record that can be trusted.
The best navigation is therefore rarely clever. Work, exhibitions, about, texts or press, and contact are familiar because they correspond to real questions. Expressive art direction can live around that structure without making the visitor decode it.
A useful artist website turns “Can you send me everything?” into one reliable link.
The essential parts
1. A clear first encounter with the work
The homepage should establish the practice before it explains it. That usually means one strong image, a measured sequence of works, or a quiet introduction that leads directly into the work.
Avoid asking a biography, manifesto, newsletter form and full navigation to compete for attention at once. The first screen does not need to tell the whole story. It needs to make the visitor want to keep looking and make the next step obvious.
The artist’s name should be text, not only part of a logo or image. The page should also say, in plain language, what kind of site the visitor has reached. Search engines and screen readers need that clarity, but so do people arriving without context.
2. Work organised around the practice
“Work” should not be a single undifferentiated image wall unless the practice genuinely calls for it. Organise it by the logic of the work: series, project, medium, exhibition, period, or another structure the artist actually uses.
Each project page should make it possible to move slowly through strong images while retaining essential context. Each individual work shown should have, where relevant:
- title;
- year or date range;
- medium and materials;
- dimensions, with the unit stated;
- duration for time-based work;
- edition information where appropriate;
- series or project relationship;
- photographer or image credit;
- installation context when the image is an installation view.
Not every work needs its own public URL on day one. The important thing is that the underlying information is recorded consistently, so the site can grow without being rebuilt around contradictory captions.
3. A biography that gives orientation
A biography is not a compressed CV. It should help a reader understand the concerns, methods and context of the practice in a few paragraphs.
Lead with the artist’s current location or working context when relevant, the character of the work, and the questions or materials that sustain it. Then add selected institutional exhibitions, collections, awards, residencies or representation—only where they clarify the trajectory.
Keep a shorter version available for people working quickly. A downloadable CV can carry the detailed chronology. Both documents should agree on names, dates and terminology.
4. An exhibition record with real status
Exhibition pages are more useful than a list alone. For a current or past exhibition, record:
- exhibition title and whether it is solo, two-person or group;
- venue, city and country;
- opening and closing dates;
- curator, where applicable;
- participating artists for group contexts when useful;
- installation views and their credits;
- a concise description or curatorial text;
- links to the venue, publication or related press;
- the works or series connected to the exhibition.
Use status language accurately. “Forthcoming” should become “Current” when the exhibition opens and move into the archive when it closes. Leaving an old show labelled forthcoming makes the whole record feel unattended.
5. Texts, press and publications
An artist’s work gathers language over time: reviews, interviews, catalogue essays, commissioned texts, lectures and books. Keep these references together and distinguish what each item is.
For press, include the publication, author, article title, publication date and a direct link. Preserve a PDF privately if rights allow, because external links disappear, but do not republish a full copyrighted article without permission.
For an essay hosted on the artist’s site, present the author clearly and preserve the original publication context. For books and catalogues, include publisher, year, contributors and an ISBN where one exists.
This section is not only reputational. It gives future writers and researchers a trail they can follow.
6. Contact without ambiguity
Someone should never have to search Instagram to work out how to reach the artist professionally.
If the artist is represented, state the gallery and provide the appropriate link or email. If different galleries represent different territories, explain that clearly. If enquiries go directly to the studio, use a stable studio address rather than a temporary personal one.
Separate sales, press and general enquiries only if those channels are genuinely monitored. More contact options do not create a better experience when nobody owns them.
7. A current CV in two forms
Provide a readable web version and a downloadable PDF. The web version is easier to browse and index; the PDF is useful for applications, curatorial packets and internal circulation.
A working artist CV may include education, selected solo and group exhibitions, collections, awards, residencies, commissions, publications and selected bibliography. The exact sections depend on the practice. Selection is a form of editing: a focused record is often more useful than every event the artist has ever joined.
Give the PDF a stable, human filename such as firstname-lastname-cv.pdf. Replace the file at the same URL when it changes, so old links continue to work.
What should remain private
The public website is not the entire studio archive.
Prices, private collector identities, precise storage locations, conservation notes, contractual terms, personal addresses and unannounced exhibitions usually belong in a protected working system. Availability may change too quickly to publish safely unless the studio and gallery share a reliable process.
Think in two connected layers:
- The public record contains what visitors need to understand and research the practice.
- The private record contains operational, commercial, legal and conservation information.
The same stable work identifier can connect both layers without exposing sensitive data. This boundary becomes increasingly important as a studio grows, works move, and more people participate in maintaining the record.
The ninety-second test
Ask someone unfamiliar with the site to complete these tasks without guidance:
- Find the newest body of work.
- Identify the title, year, medium and dimensions of one work.
- Find the artist’s current or most recent exhibition.
- Download the current CV.
- Find the correct person for an exhibition or press enquiry.
If any task takes longer than ninety seconds, the issue is usually structure rather than aesthetics. Watch where the person hesitates. A navigation label, caption pattern or buried contact route will often reveal itself immediately.
Repeat the test on a phone. Many important visits happen while someone is moving between a studio, gallery, fair or meeting. The mobile version cannot be a reduced afterthought.
Quality is also technical
The work deserves large, accurate images, but those images still need to load quickly. Prepare web derivatives rather than serving the studio’s master files directly. Preserve the original aspect ratio, avoid aggressive sharpening, and check colour and contrast on more than one display.
Every meaningful image needs alternative text that describes what a visitor cannot see. Decorative images should be ignored by assistive technology. Video needs captions or a transcript when speech is important. Keyboard navigation, visible focus states, readable type and adequate contrast are part of presenting the work properly.
Technical restraint often produces the most durable result: stable URLs, semantic pages, limited dependencies and content that remains available without an elaborate animation finishing first.
Decide how the site stays alive
Before launch, answer four operational questions:
- Who receives a new exhibition, work or press update?
- What information and files must accompany it?
- How quickly should each kind of update be published?
- Who checks that the public result is accurate?
Write the answers down. A simple workflow is more valuable than a powerful content system nobody wants to use.
At Appesa, this ongoing responsibility is the point of digital stewardship, not an optional maintenance extra. The website should remain ready for the important visitor who arrives six months or six years after launch.
The final checklist
Before considering an artist website complete, confirm that:
- the homepage leads to the work immediately;
- the selected work reflects the practice now;
- every visible caption follows one consistent format;
- biography and CV agree;
- current and forthcoming exhibitions have correct dates and status;
- press links name the publication, writer and date;
- representation and contact details are unmistakable;
- image and text permissions are recorded;
- the site is usable on a phone and with a keyboard;
- pages have descriptive titles and stable links;
- private information remains private;
- one person or partner owns the update process.
An artist website does not need more pages for the sake of appearing substantial. It needs the right record, edited with care, and a structure capable of growing with the career.