Artist in salon, unfortunately one unplaced in competition (4-3)
I believe the answer is:
also ran
'one unplaced in competition' is the definition.
(competitor failing to place in a race)
'artist in salon unfortunately' is the wordplay.
'artist' becomes 'RA' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'unfortunately' indicates an anagram.
'salon' is an anagram of 'alson'.
'ra' going within 'alson' is 'ALSO-RAN'.
(Other definitions for also ran that I've seen before include "Poor competitor" , "no real contender" , "one that didn't win" , "loser" , "last runner?" .)