How to Promote Your Art: Personal Brand, Social Media, Press and Offline Events

There are plenty of talented artists, and noticeably fewer whose names are recognised. The difference between them is almost never the quality of the work: it is that some have the second half of the profession — making art visible — and others lack it.

This is often where the resistance sets in. Some see promotion as something shameful and hope that good work will make itself seen. Some run their social media as a shop window of photographs of finished pieces and cannot understand why it gets no response. Some put on an exhibition and tell no one about it but their friends. All of this can be solved once you understand what a name is made of.

Let’s take it piece by piece: what an artist’s personal brand is and what it is assembled from, how social media works for an artist, what to do around exhibitions, how to get into the media and which promotion habits do not work at all.

Contents

• Personal brand: what an artist’s name is made of
• Social media: show your practice, not a shop window
• Offline: exhibitions, collaborations, press releases
• Media: how to get coverage
• Mistakes: what does not work in promotion

Personal brand: what an artist’s name is made of

The word “brand” irritates many people, but what stands behind it is simple: what other people understand about you when you are not there. An artist’s brand rests on three pillars.

Position. What you are saying with your work and why it matters. Not “I paint landscapes”, but the lens you are offering. This is exactly the material you have already put into words in your artist statement — and it becomes the basis of every text about you.

A recognisable language. Medium, theme, method. Not necessarily one device for life, but it should be clear that the different pieces were made by one person.

Personality. Today it matters to the viewer not only what you make but also who you are. Your thoughts, your interests, your view of the art world, your attitude to what is happening around you. This is not about candour at any cost; it is about there being a living person behind the works, not a nameless producer of objects.

The test is simple: ask someone you know in the art world to describe your practice in one sentence. If they can, you have a brand. If they falter, it is not your reach that needs work.

Social media: show your practice, not a shop window

The main mistake is to post only finished works. A finished piece does not tell anyone how you think, and that is precisely what draws an audience.

What to show besides the result: the process and the studio, discarded versions, sketches and tests, the installation of an exhibition, reflections on other people’s projects that struck you, answers to the questions you are asked most often.

Platforms work differently. Visual social networks are good for showing the works themselves and short videos from the studio. A Telegram channel is for texts, announcements and longer reflections: the audience there is smaller but of better quality, and it is also where colleagues and curators usually find you. A personal website with a blog is the only platform you control completely, and the place to which all the others lead.

One limitation is worth remembering: social media gives you visibility, but it does not give you institutional weight. A hundred thousand followers are no substitute for a line about a museum exhibition on your CV, and their effect on the price of your work, as we discussed in the piece on how to price your art, is far weaker than it seems.

Offline: exhibitions, collaborations, press releases

An exhibition in itself is not yet promotion. If nobody outside your circle of friends heard about it, it remains a line on your CV and nothing more.

The press release. A short text is prepared for every project: what the exhibition is, what it is about, where and when, who the curator is, what is on show. One page, no adjectives, with contact details and a couple of good high-resolution photographs. It is sent to specialist media, art channels, galleries and event listings sites.

Collaborations. Joint projects with other artists, institutions and brands interest both audiences and the media: the story gains a hook. It is also a way of reaching someone else’s audience, who would otherwise never have heard of you.

Competitions and residencies. Even taking part, to say nothing of winning, is a legitimate news hook and, at the same time, a line on your CV. On top of that, a residency almost always gives you what a feed does not: new contacts and a professional community.

Media: how to get coverage

Press coverage does two jobs at once: it widens your audience and it adds weight — curators and galleries refer to it, and it also goes into the publications section of your CV.

Relationships with journalists are built in advance. Find the people who write about art in your field, read them, work out what exactly interests them. What you offer should not be “write about me” but a specific story with a hook: a new project, an unusual method, an unexpected context.

What to have ready. A short bio, a portfolio, two or three good-quality photographs of your works and one portrait — the editors will ask for these on the very first day, and the lack of materials often kills a piece that had already been agreed.

Bloggers and specialist channels. In the art world these often work better than the big publications: the audience is smaller, but it consists of people who really do go to exhibitions and buy works.

Mistakes: what does not work in promotion

• Waiting to be found. Many people really are looking, but they look where artists are already visible.
• Only finished works in the feed. A shop window without context soon stops holding people’s interest.
• Working in bursts. Three posts a week, then six months of silence — the audience does not build up.
• The hard sell. Constant calls to buy put off both viewers and institutions.
• A different image on different platforms. If in one place you are a serious artist and in another someone quite different, neither version holds together.
• Bad photographs. The most frustrating item on the list: a strong work shot on a phone under yellow light does not look strong. The requirements for photographing work are in the piece on the artist’s portfolio.
• Silence after the exhibition. Installation views, texts, feedback — all of this goes on working for months, if you make use of it.

Promotion does not replace art and does not rescue a weak practice. But for a strong practice, it decides whether that practice stays known to ten people or reaches those who really need it. An artist’s two tasks are equally important: making good art and making it visible.

When did you last tell someone outside your circle of acquaintances about your work — and what exactly did you say?