Esther M. Choi (b. Toronto, Canada; lives in New York) makes photographs, installations, and texts that trace how surfaces, including those produced by the image economy, render invisible the material and political conditions they depend on.

Her images typically begin as sculptures and sets built from industrially processed natural resources and synthetic substances—petroleum, semi-precious stone, cultivated wheat, laboratory-grown crystals, plastic fur and foliage. The resulting image is assembled from 40-60 photographs into a composite that merges the genres of still life and landscape. Choi integrates photographic production and postproduction techniques as signifiers, drawing awareness to the work's construction.

Choi's practice extends into everyday media infrastructures, entering their circulatory systems to make visible what those systems conceal. Le Corbuffet (Prestel, 2019), a James Beard nominated artist's book, co-opted cookbook publishing and food photography to examine the intersections of culinary culture, image culture, politics, and access. Office Hours (2020–2024) established a knowledge-sharing network using teleconferencing software for thousands of cultural workers across thirty countries. Public Service (2022–2025), supported by the Ford Foundation, produced a YouTube series featuring conversations among leading BIPOC cultural practitioners about catalyzing social and structural change.

Her writing has appeared in Artforum, E-Flux, Harvard Design Magazine, and Perspecta. She is coeditor of Architecture at the Edge of Everything Else (MIT Press, 2010) and Architecture Is All Over (Columbia University Press, 2017). A 2022 Getty/ACLS Postdoctoral Fellow in the History of Art, Choi holds a PhD from Princeton University and degrees from Harvard University (MDes), Concordia University (MFA), and Toronto Metropolitan University (BFA). Her work has been supported by the Ford Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, Graham Foundation, and the Social Sciences Research Council of Canada.

Still life commissions can be viewed here.

Mail: studio@estherchoi.net

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