Feature
Artist database software that stays in sync with the catalogue
Most galleries have an artist database in the same way they have a fitness routine: it exists in principle, it is updated occasionally, and the version everyone uses (the bio Word doc on the director's laptop) is six months out of date. This guide explains how to model artists so the database is the place everyone reads from, including the [public website](/guides/gallery-website-builder), the press kit, and the lender letter.
What an artist record actually contains
A working artist record holds the canonical name and any name variants the artist is also credited under, the bio (in multiple lengths, because the press release needs 80 words and the museum loan letter needs 400), the CV (exhibitions, prizes, residencies, publications, in chronological order), the contact information, the representation status, the consignment terms, and the works the gallery has from this artist.
When that record is the source of truth, the press release for the next show pulls the bio from the record, the public website artist page reads the same CV, and the museum loan letter cites the same exhibition history. When it is not, the bio drifts: the website says one thing, the press release says another, and the museum loan letter quotes a 2018 version everyone forgot about.
The five fields every artist record needs (and one to skip)
After watching enough galleries set up artist records, the same five fields turn out to be the ones that pay off; the sixth (a "tags" cloud) almost always becomes a mess.
- Canonical name + variants. The name as it appears on credits ("Mary Smith"), plus the variants the work is sometimes credited under ("M. Smith", "Smith, Mary"). Search and exports use the canonical; provenance and historical documents accept the variants.
- Multiple bio lengths. A 50-word version for a wall label, a 150-word version for a press release, a 400-word version for a loan letter. Three real fields, not "the bio" with a "use as needed" comment.
- Structured CV. Exhibitions (solo, group), prizes, residencies, public collections, publications, each as a real entry with year and venue. The CV PDF is generated from these; nobody types the CV in Word.
- Representation context. Are we the primary gallery? Co-rep with whom in which territory? Estate-administered? This is the field that prevents the most expensive misunderstanding: pitching a work in a region where the gallery does not have selling rights.
- Available works. A live link to the works in inventory by this artist, filtered by status. The artist record is the entry point; the works are not duplicated underneath it.
The field to skip: a free-text "tags" cloud
Almost every gallery, on first setup, wants a free-text "tags" or "themes" field on the artist ("painting", "abstract", "Latin American", "emerging"). It feels useful and becomes a mess within a year because nobody enforces consistency, and the same artist ends up tagged "abstract painting" in some records and "abstraction, painting" in others. Either define a closed list of values (artist medium, region, generation) or skip it entirely. Free-text tags are a tar pit.
Where Word docs and a Dropbox folder per artist break
The classic artist database is a folder per artist in Dropbox: bio.docx, cv.docx, portrait.jpg, press_clippings/, contracts/, install_photos/. It survives until the second director needs to find an artist's 2019 group show in Lisbon and discovers the only record is a JPG in a "press" subfolder.
It also survives until the artist asks for an updated CV and the gallery realises four versions exist across three laptops. The version on the website is from 2023, the version in the last loan letter is from 2024, and the artist's own version (which they expect the gallery to use) was emailed in February.
A real artist database, linked to exhibitions and works, builds the CV automatically. The 2019 Lisbon group show appears because the exhibition record exists and the work was in it. The CV is up to date by definition; the Word doc no longer needs to exist.
How Art.industries handles artists
Artist is a first-class record alongside Work, Contact, Exhibition, and Publication. Every work references an artist record (not a string), every exhibition references the artists in it, every press mention can reference the artist record. The CV view on the artist record shows every exhibition the system knows about, in chronological order, generated automatically from the actual records.
Bios live in three length variants on the record. The press kit, the loan letter, and the wall label each pull the appropriate length. When the gallery updates a bio, the change propagates to every surface that reads it on the next render, including the public website.
Representation territory and consignment defaults live on the artist record and propagate to new consignments and works. An artist co-represented with another gallery in Europe has that recorded; offering a work into Germany surfaces a flag asking whether the co-rep gallery should be looped in.
Estates are modelled the same way as living artists, with the addition of an estate contact and the estate-specific paperwork (signed-off-by, foundation contact). The artist record outlives the artist; correspondence routes to the estate without needing a separate "deceased artist" workflow.
Sharing artist records with the artist (and not sharing too much)
Most artists want to know what the gallery has of theirs, where it is, and what has sold. Some want a lot more: the prices, the discount history, the institutional inquiries. The right default is somewhere in the middle.
Art.industries lets the gallery invite an artist to a private artist view that shows their consigned works, current locations, sale history (gross, net, share), exhibition history with the gallery, and an updated CV. The gallery decides whether prices, discount history, or specific collector identities are visible. Most galleries enable works + sales + CV by default and keep collector identities and discount history gallery-side.
For estates, the same view often goes to the estate administrator with broader visibility, because the estate is effectively the consignor and is entitled to fuller settlement detail. See Consignment management for the full visibility model.
When the artist leaves (or you stop representing them)
Representation is not permanent. When an artist leaves the gallery (amicably or otherwise), the artist record stays. The works the gallery sold remain in the historical record; the consignment closeout produces the final settlement; the website removes the artist from the represented list but the past exhibitions remain and continue to drive SEO and provenance for years afterward.
Some galleries try to delete the artist record. This is almost always a mistake: the works the gallery sold to collectors decades ago still cite the gallery, and removing the record breaks every internal trace of the relationship. Keep the record; mark the representation as ended; let the historical data do its work.
FAQ
- Can estates be modelled as artists?
- Yes. The artist record continues after the artist's death; an estate contact and any estate-specific paperwork (signed-off-by, foundation reference) are added as fields on the same record. Correspondence routes to the estate; the artist's historical record (works, exhibitions, sales) stays attached.
- How are co-representation deals modelled?
- On the artist record. The territory split (we represent in the Americas, gallery X in Europe) and the works covered live there; offering a work into a co-represented territory surfaces a flag in the invoice and viewing room flows.
- Can the artist see their own collector list?
- They see what you grant. The default artist view shows works, sales (gross, net, share), and the CV. Collector identities are usually kept gallery-side; institutional buyers can be revealed if you choose. The visibility is per-field, not all-or-nothing.
- Is the CV generated automatically from the system?
- Yes. Exhibition entries, prizes, public collections, residencies, and publications are all real records that show up in the CV in chronological order. Manual entries (e.g. a 1998 group show that predates the gallery's relationship with the artist) can be added directly to the CV; the CV is the union of structured records and manual entries.
- How does this work for galleries representing dozens of artists?
- The artist list is a real entity view with filters (medium, generation, representation status, last show, last sale). A gallery with 40 represented artists uses the artist list the same way they use the contact list: as a working surface, not a static directory.
- Can we attach press clippings and reviews to the artist record?
- Yes. Press is a structured record (publication, date, author, link or attached PDF) and links to the artist, the work, or the exhibition it covers. The artist's press list is the union of every press item that references them. The press kit PDF is generated from the structured records.
- What happens if we stop representing an artist?
- The artist record stays; the representation status is marked as ended on a date. Past works, sales, and exhibitions remain in the historical record. The public website removes the artist from the represented list automatically; past exhibitions remain published, which keeps the SEO and provenance value.
Set up one artist record properly
Pick the artist whose CV you most often have to scramble to update. Build the record in the trial, attach the past five years of exhibitions, and let the CV generate itself. The next press release will write 90% faster.