Most artists who write to a magazine send the same email: a biography, a statement and a link to a website. Most of those emails are never answered. The work may be good. The email gives an editor nothing to do.
This guide is for painters, printmakers and artists working in drawing, collage and mixed media who want their work written about. It covers what an editor needs from you, when to write, where to send it, and what the publications themselves say they want. Every submissions page in the table below was opened and checked on 4 October 2026.
You are asking for one of two things
Before you write a word, decide which request you are making, because they go to different places.
"Show my work." Some publications feature artists directly. They want images and a short description, and they choose with their eyes. Colossal, BOOOOOOOM, It's Nice That and Creative Boom work this way.
"Write about my exhibition." Reviews and features are written by critics and freelance writers, and the publications that run them take pitches from writers. Hyperallergic, the Guardian's arts desk and Dazed are in this group. An artist who pitches a review of their own show to these desks is asking for something they cannot give. What you can do is make the show easy to find: send exhibition news to the news address, invite the critic to the press view, and let a writer who knows your work make the pitch.
Mixing the two is the commonest mistake in this field. A feature platform does not want your press release, and a critic does not want eight attachments.
What an editor needs from a visual artist
An editor looking at an artist's email is answering three questions in about a minute.
Can I see it? Six to eight images, not thirty. Each one has a title, a year, a medium and dimensions. The files are large enough to publish and named so that they can be told apart. A painting photographed at an angle, under a ceiling light, with the edge of a radiator in the frame, has been rejected before the text is read.
Why now? An exhibition with dates, a new body of work, a commission unveiled, a prize, a book. "I have been painting for twenty years" is a fact about you. "The show opens on 14 November and runs for five weeks" is a reason to act.
What is the one idea? One sentence that a stranger could repeat. Compare:
My practice explores memory, identity and the liminal spaces between presence and absence.
I paint the kitchens of houses in my street the week after the owners have moved out.
The second sentence can be pictured, checked and written about. The first describes most of the art made this century.
What to prepare before you write to anyone
- Images, as above, plus one installation view if the work has been shown. Say who took each photograph. If someone else did, check that you may share it.
- A caption sheet: title, year, medium, dimensions, and where the work is now.
- One paragraph about the work in plain words. Read it aloud. If you would not say it to a friend, rewrite it.
- The facts of the exhibition: venue, address, dates, opening hours, whether entry is free, the date of the private view or press view.
- One link where everything can be seen in one place. A portfolio page that loads quickly and shows the work large does more than a long email. A social feed is not a substitute: editors cannot quote from it or pull a caption from it.
- Files that open. A few images attached directly, or one light PDF with one work to a page and your contact details on the last one. Never a zip archive, and never a link to a folder that asks for permission.
- Proof that other people have looked: a previous review, a selection for an open exhibition, a collection that holds your work. One line, with a link.
When to pitch
Timing in the visual arts is set by the exhibition calendar.
- Online publications want to hear about a show three to six weeks before it opens. After the opening you are offering old news; in the final week you are offering none.
- Monthly print magazines plan about three months ahead. A show opening in May is discussed in February.
- The press view is usually held on the day of the private view or the morning before. Invitations go out two to three weeks earlier, with a reminder in the final week.
- The busy weeks are harder. In Britain, October belongs to the art fairs around Frieze London, and early summer to degree shows and the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition. A regional exhibition that opens in a quiet month has less competition for attention.
- Outside London you have an advantage that artists rarely use: the regional press, local radio and the arts pages of city publications have fewer exhibitions to choose from, and a critic from a national title is more likely to travel for a show if it is the only one worth seeing that month.
Where to pitch
The table lists what each publication says on its own page. Terms change; open the page before you write.
| Publication | What they take | What their page asks for | Page |
|---|---|---|---|
| ArtCulture UK | Reviews, features, interviews and essays on visual art, literature, music and film | A pitch through the form: the angle, why now, links to your work. Says it replies within about ten working days | Submissions guidelines |
| BOOOOOOOM | Work by artists, photographers and illustrators | Submit your work to be considered for a feature on the website and social channels | Submissions |
| Colossal | Project-based or exhibition-based submissions with images or video | A brief email describing the work, with a few high-resolution images. Says every submission is considered but it cannot reply personally | Submission guidelines |
| Creative Boom | Creative people, projects and stories; press releases for its news section | Read the guidelines first. Says it does not accept pitches through social media and cannot reply to everyone | Get featured |
| Creative Review | Commercial creative work: advertising, design and brands | A short summary of the project, a press release and high-resolution images or video links | How to pitch |
| Dazed | Features, opinion and criticism, including art and photography, from freelance writers | A written pitch; the guide explains what each section wants and whom to write to | How to pitch to Dazed Digital |
| The Guardian | Freelance contributions, sent to the relevant desk. A separate address is listed for illustrators' portfolios | Read the contributors' guide, then send the pitch to the desk listed on the page | Contact page, "Freelance contributions" |
| Hyperallergic | News, reviews and opinion from writers. Says it gives priority to shows that are under-recognised | A working title, the argument in two or three sentences, why now, the word count and available images, a short biography with two or three writing samples | How to pitch |
| It's Nice That | Work submitted for a feature; separately, writing pitches and story tips | Follow the Submissions Guide for work. Pitches and tips go to a different address, listed on the page | Contact |
| Visionary Art | Exhibition reviews, studio visits and artists working outside London | Six to eight images with title, year, medium and dimensions, a short statement, and where the work can be seen. Says it answers within about three weeks | Submissions |
Two notes on reading the table. Publications that say they cannot reply to everyone mean it: silence is the normal answer and not a judgement. And a writers' page is useful to an artist too, because it tells you what a critic has to prove to an editor before your show can be reviewed. The easier you make that case, the likelier someone is to make it.
Three mistakes that are particular to artists
Sending the statement instead of the story. An artist statement is written for a gallery wall. An editor needs the fact that makes this body of work different from the last one: a material, a place, a constraint, a number. "Forty paintings of one hillside, made on forty consecutive mornings" is a story. The statement can follow as an attachment.
Sending images nobody can publish. Phone photographs, watermarks, screenshots from social media, files a few hundred pixels wide. If an editor likes the work and cannot use the picture, the feature goes to the next artist. Pay for a morning with a photographer who shoots artwork; it is the cheapest publicity you will ever buy.
Writing after the show has opened. The exhibition is the news, and news has a date. The email that says "my show closed last week, here are some pictures" has no use to anyone. If you missed the window, pitch the next thing: the work travelling to another venue, the catalogue, the studio.
A pitch you can adapt
The example below is invented. Nothing in it refers to a real artist or exhibition.
Subject: Exhibition, [town], 14 Nov to 20 Dec: forty paintings of one emptying street
Dear [name],
I am a painter based in [town]. From 14 November to 20 December [venue] is showing Moved Out, forty small oil paintings of kitchens in my own street, each made in the week after the people living there had left.
I think it may suit your coverage of exhibitions outside London: the paintings are a record of one street over four years, and eleven of the houses are now holiday lets.
Six images with captions are attached, and the full series is here: [one link]. The press view is on 13 November at 11am, and I would be glad to arrange a visit on another day.
A previous series was selected for [open exhibition, year].
With thanks, [Name, telephone]
It runs to about a hundred and twenty words. It names the place and the dates in the subject line, gives one idea, says why this publication, and makes the next step easy.
Two things it does not do. It is not a circular: where a page names an editor, write to that person, because a message sent to forty publications at once is recognised in the first line. And it is written by the artist. Signing as your own "manager" or "studio assistant" convinces nobody, and an artist writing in the first person is exactly what an editor expects.
Questions artists ask
Should I pay to be featured? No reputable editorial publication charges an artist for coverage. If you are asked to pay for a "feature", an "interview" or inclusion in a book of artists, you are buying an advertisement, and nobody who matters will read it as anything else.
Can I send the same pitch to several publications? Yes, for exhibition news and for submissions of work. Do not offer the same exclusive to two editors, and do not copy ten publications into one email. Write to each one separately and say in a sentence why you chose them.
How long should I wait before following up? Two weeks, once. If a page says the publication cannot reply to everyone, do not follow up at all. Put the effort into the next pitch.
Do I need a gallery or a publicist? No. Feature platforms take submissions from artists directly, and several say so on their pages. A publicist helps when a show needs critics in the room on a particular morning. For everything else, clear images and a short, specific email do the same work.
