My Experience Writing Content for Galleries and Artists
Having worked in the art world for the last decade, I have done my fair share of writing, be it for galleries, artists, or in art journals. My writing portfolio spans the full spectrum of art world communications, each form presenting its own unique challenges and rewards.
At Bluerider ART's Mayfair gallery, I found myself responsible for both the granular and the expansive, crafting Instagram captions that could capture the essence of complex artworks in formats designed for fleeting attention spans, while simultaneously writing comprehensive exhibition statements that needed to serve both casual visitors and serious collectors. The contrast taught me invaluable lessons about register and audience: how the same artwork might require entirely different vocabularies depending on the context and the reader's relationship to the work. What was always at the forefront of my mind was maintaining the gallery’s voice for a cohesive brand identity.
The commercial side of art writing brought its own complexities. Writing applications for major art fairs like Frieze London meant mastering a unique form of persuasive writing: part critical analysis, part sales pitch, part artistic manifesto. These applications argued not just for the quality of the work, but for its relevance within the broader conversation of contemporary art. Success meant securing prestigious booth space in highly competitive environments where galleries vie for international attention.
Working directly with individual artists has opened different creative territories. Art fair and grant applications for jeweller Alice Langbrown required diving deep into how contemporary jewelry sits within both craft traditions and fine art contexts. Each application demanded a different voice, formal and academic for certain grants, more accessible and market-focused for commercial opportunities. Meanwhile, writing the accompanying text for photographer Tui Caro-Lister's debut book presented an entirely different challenge: creating words that would complement rather than compete with the visual narrative, providing context while allowing the images to maintain their primacy.
Perhaps the most intellectually demanding work came through my commissions for critical writing. The quarterly journal 'New Zealand Review of Books Pukapuka Aotearoa' asked me to review two very different works: first, Brannavan Gnanalingam's Sodden Downstream, and later, Life on Volcanoes: Contemporary Essays, a compilation by multiple female authors. The latter review, titled Hurting in Different Ways, explored how disparate voices created a collective narrative about contemporary female experience. When The Pantograph Punch, an online arts and culture journal, republished the piece, it marked a satisfying cross-platform moment that expanded the review's reach beyond its original academic audience.
Moving between promotional writing and critical analysis required fundamental shifts in perspective. Instead of advocating for work, I was now tasked with examining it: placing it within broader contexts, assessing achievements and limitations, engaging as both reader and critic. This duality has proven invaluable. Understanding how to sell art deepens your ability to critique it, while critical skills sharpen promotional writing by forcing you to identify what genuinely makes work compelling.
Writing in the art world means becoming fluent in multiple registers simultaneously: the intimate language of artist statements, the commercial vocabulary of sales materials, the academic discourse of critical theory, and the accessible tone of public engagement.
Whether crafting a thirty-word Instagram caption or a three-thousand-word critical essay, the fundamental challenge remains the same: how do you use language to make the invisible visible, to translate the untranslatable, and to build bridges between minds across the ineffable space that art occupies?
