Contact

esther [at] estherchoi [dot] net
academia.edu

Biography

Esther Choi (b. Toronto) is a multidisciplinary artist and architectural historian whose artwork, writing, and scholarship explore how concepts of nature, marginality, and identity have shaped and been shaped by worldmaking traditions and technologies. Trained in photography and architectural history, Choi bridges disciplines in works and texts that regard photography and history not merely as ways to record facts, but rather as complex practices of description that can reveal the prevailing ideas, assumptions, and experiences of an era.

Choi is also interested in the intersections between photographic representation and dialogical aesthetics. Recent works include Le Corbuffet (Prestel 2019), a participatory artist's book that adopts the form of a subversive cookbook; and Office Hours (2020–), a global socially-engaged initiative that cultivates the sharing of worldmaking knowledge amongst practitioners who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Choi's work has been exhibited internationally and written about in T Magazine, 032C, Vanity Fair, The Architect's Newspaper, Dwell, and more.

She has published critical essays in Artforum, Architectural Review, Art Papers, Journal of Architectural Education, and SSENSE, and contributed book chapters to Hippie Modernism (Walker Art Center, 2015), Reaper (JRP Ringier, 2015), and Radical Pedagogies (MIT Press, 2022). Choi is coeditor of Architecture At the Edge of Everything Else (MIT Press, 2010) and Architecture Is All Over (Columbia U, 2017).

Choi received her PhD in Architectural History and Theory from Princeton University. Prior to Princeton, she earned an MDes AP from Harvard Graduate School of Design, an MFA in photography from Concordia University, and a BFA in photography from Ryerson University. Her work has received support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Graham Foundation, Richard Rogers Fellowship, Society of Architectural Historians, Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada, and American Council of Learned Societies, among others.

Choi is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Cooper Union and a Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.