An artist’s portfolio is an edited collection of their best artwork intended to showcase an artist’s style or method of work. A portfolio is used by artists to show employers their versatility by showing different samples of current work. Typically, the work reflects an artist’s best work or a depth in one specific area of work.

Historically, Portfolios were printed out and placed into a book. With the increased use of the internet and email however, there are now websites that host online portfolios that are available to a wider audience. Sometimes an artist’s portfolio can be referred to as a lookbook.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist%27s_portfolio