In this chapter we review existing Australian datasets that relate to the incomes of visual and craft artists in the visual arts sector in order to identify important gaps in our knowledge of incomes and work practices. In Australia, incomes in the visual arts sector are not only lower than the average across the population, they are also lower than those in many other artforms. This is demonstrably true using available income measures, but to fully understand the economic situation of visual and craft artists, let alone formulate policy and practice actions, a complete picture of the make‐up of their earnings at any one time and across their life cycle is needed. We outline the available data on the number of visual and craft artists in Australia and situate this within a broader literature around defining the status of an artist. We then go on to focus specifically on research into the incomes of visual and craft artists, noting the impact of the definition of ‘artist’ on reported incomes and the variation in reporting of income specifically from an arts practice as opposed to total income from all sources. The final part of the chapter characterises the nature of the visual and craft artists’ interactions with the labour market, towards informing future research and policy interventions.