esther [at] estherchoi [dot] net
Esther Choi (b. Toronto, Canada) is a New York City-based artist and scholar working across the disciplines of art and architecture. Trained in photography and architectural history, her artistic practice and scholarship explore how notions of identity and concepts of nature—and, by extension, beliefs about what is normative, natural and inevitable—have shaped and been shaped by the aesthetic and sociopolitical dimensions of modern worldmaking practices. Her scholarship centered on the historical entanglements between modern architecture, technology and the life sciences informs many of her artistic projects, which tend to focus on projective, speculative fictional approaches to understanding the synthetic or "second" natures of contemporary life.
She is the founder of Office Hours, a socially-engaged art initiative that cultivates the sharing of liberatory worldmaking knowledge amongst practitioners who identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). In 2022, Office Hours will launch Breaking Waves, a web series featuring leading BIPOC artists, designers and cultural theorists that explores strategies to catalyze radical social change in the cultural industries—and beyond.
In 2019, she published a James Beard nominated artist's book titled Le Corbuffet (Prestel), which adopts the form of a cookbook to imagine alternate modes of engaging with art and design history. She has published critical essays in Artforum, Architectural Review, Art Papers, E-Flux Architecture, Journal of Architectural Education and SSENSE, and contributed book chapters to publications including Hippie Modernism (Walker Art Center, 2015), Reaper (JRP Ringier, 2015) and Radical Pedagogies (MIT Press, 2022). Choi is the coeditor of Architecture At the Edge of Everything Else (MIT Press, 2010) and Architecture Is All Over (Columbia U, 2017).
From 2022-2023, she will be a Getty/ACLS Postdoctoral Fellow. Choi is an Adjunct Associate Professor at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Previously, she held a cross-appointment in the Departments of Photography, Criticism and Curatorial Practice, and the Interdisciplinary Masters Program at OCAD University from 2008 to 2016.
Choi earned a BFA from Toronto Metropolitan University, her MFA from Concordia University, her MDeS from Harvard, and her Ph.D. in the History and Theory of Architecture from Princeton University. She has received a number of grants and fellowships for her work from the Graham Foundation, Getty Foundation, ACLS, Richard Rogers Fellowship, Canada Council for the Arts and The Ford Foundation, among others.
- Education
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2019
MA and Ph.D., History and Theory of Architecture, Princeton University
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2008
MDes (AP), History and Theory of Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design
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2007
MFA, Photography/ Studio Arts, Concordia University
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2001
BFA, Photography, Toronto Metropolitan University
- Recent & Forthcoming Exhibitions
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2021
Modern Societies I, Texas State Galleries, TX (Solo). Jan. 19–April 11, 2021
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2020
Prints from Der Mensch, University of Tennessee, TN (Solo. Jan. 27-Feb. 21, 2020.
- Recent Writing
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2022
"Life, In Theory: The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies," in Radical Pedagogies, eds. Beatriz Colomina, Ignacio G. Galán, Evangelos Kotsioris, Anna-Maria Meister (Cambridge: MIT Press).
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2021
“New Forms of Articulation: Sumayya Vally in conversation with Esther Choi,” Deem Journal. (2021).
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2021
"The Interpretation", Solicited: proposals, E-flux Architecture and ArkDes, Print and Web.
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2019
“Sustainability’s Image Problem.” Library Stack for the Oslo Architecture Triennale.
- Publications
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2019
Artist Book –
Le Corbuffet: Edible Art and Design Classics (Prestel) -
2017
Edited Volume –
Architecture Is All Over, coeditor (Columbia U; with Marrikka Trotter) -
2010
Edited Volume –
Architecture At the Edge of Everything Else, co-editor (MIT Press; with Marrikka Trotter,)
- Selected Bibliography
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2021
Jess Myers, "Conversation: Esther Choi," Dwell Magazine (Sept./ Oct. 2021): 44–45. Print.
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2021
Leilah Stone, "Low Ego, High Impact," Metropolis Magazine (July/ August 2021). Print.
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2021
Wanda Lau, "Esther Choi: Courage Is a Muscle," Architect Magazine, June 21, 2021.
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2021
Jack Balderamma Morley, "The second season of Office Hours promises more opportunities for young BIPOC designers." The Architect's Newspaper. (March 4, 2021). Print and web.
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2020
“Office Hours is shifting the landscape for BIPOC creatives,” Architizer.
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2020
"Still Life With Fly Swatter, or Hourglass, or Lemons," T: The New York Times Style Magazine
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2020
"All you can read," Art Review
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2020
"Meet Esther Choi, Artist and Author of Subversive Cookbook 'Le Corbuffet'," PIN-UP
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2020
"Punishable: Esther Choi Eats Our Idols," 032c, Issue 37 (Winter 2019/20): 292–93. Print.
- Selected Awards, Fellowships & Grants
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2022
Ford Foundation Arts Futures Grant (for Office Hours)
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2022
Getty/ACLS Postdoctoral Fellowship
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2021
David B. Brownlee Dissertation Award, Society of Architectural Historians
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2021
Canada Council for the Arts, Research-Creation Grant
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2020
James Beard Foundation Book Awards Nominee, Photography (for Le Corbuffet)
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2021
American Council of Learned Societies Research Grant
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2019
Richard Rogers Fellowship, Harvard Graduate School of Design
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2017
Princeton University Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in the Humanities Fellowship
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2015
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts
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2015
Canadian Center for Architecture–TD Bank Group Research Grant