Studio: esther@estherchoi.net
Editorial and commercial photography: Visual Culture
Academic profile: The Cooper Union
Esther Choi is an artist and scholar whose work explores how concepts of identity and nature have been shaped by the aesthetics and narratives of Western cultural worldmaking practices. Her artistic practice and academic research draw from art and architectural history, decolonial and postcolonial theory, critical environmental studies, and feminist science and technology studies.
In addition to her reworking of traditional photographic genres (landscape and still life), Choi's artwork explores how time-based and photographic media, and their means of circulation, can operate as tools for cultural critique. Her socially-engaged projects include Office Hours (2020–), a knowledge sharing participatory project for BIPOC cultural producers; Le Corbuffet (Prestel, 2019), a James Beard-nominated cookbook that poses questions about canons, narratives, and cultural value; and Public Service (2023-), a web zine that features notable BIPOC artists, designers, and scholars in conversations about catalyzing change in the culture industries—and beyond.
Her writing has been published in Artforum, Art Papers, Harvard Design Magazine, and e-flux, in addition to edited volumes and exhibition catalogues. She is the co-editor of two books, Architecture at the Edge of Everything Else (MIT Press, 2010) and Architecture Is All Over (Columbia U, 2017).
While a Getty/ACLS Postdoctoral Fellow in the History of Art, she is working on a book titled The Organization of Life, based on her Ph.D. dissertation completed at Princeton University. Tracing the interwar exchanges and collaborations that took place between British and European artists, designers, and evolutionary biologists, the book examines how the culture industries were used to design a "modernized" human—and a model of humanism based on this subjective and colonial standard—as a "natural" outcrop of evolution.
Choi is an Adjunct Associate Professor at The Cooper Union. She has also taught at OCAD University, University of Pennsylvania, and The New School in the areas of photography, criticism and curatorial practice, and architectural history and theory.
A regular contributor to T: The New York Times Style Magazine, her photographs have been commissioned by Le Monde, Dazed and Confused, Vice, The New York Times Magazine, and AnOther Man, among other publications.
Choi's work has received recognition and support from The Ford Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada, Richard Rogers Fellowship, James Beard Foundation, Princeton University, Harvard University, The Getty Foundation, The Graham Foundation, Society of Architectural Historians, and Canadian Centre for Architecture, among others.
- Education
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2019
Ph.D., History and Theory of Architecture, Princeton University
• Recipient of the David B. Brownlee Dissertation Award, Society of Architectural Historians (2020) -
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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2023
“A World At One With Itself,” Harvard Design Magazine, Issue 51: The Multihyphenate. Guest edited by Sean Canty, Zeina Koreitem, John May.
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2022
"Keywords," PIN-UP Magazine (Summer 2022). Print.
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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.
- Books
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2019
Le Corbuffet: Art and Design Classics (Prestel 2019).
• Nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award for Photography (2020). -
2017
Architecture Is All Over, coeditor (Columbia U; with Marrikka Trotter)
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2010
Architecture At the Edge of Everything Else, co-editor (MIT Press; with Marrikka Trotter,)
- Selected Fellowships, Grants and Awards
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2023
Ford Foundation, Creativity and Free Expression Arts and Culture Program Grant
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2021
Getty/American Council of Learned Societies Postdoctoral Fellowship in the History of Art
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2021
Canada Council for the Arts Research-Creation Grant
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2020
Society of Architectural Historians David B. Brownlee Dissertation Award
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2020
James Beard Foundation Book Awards Nominee, Photography
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2019
Richard Rogers Fellowship, London, UK
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2015
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts
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2015
Canadian Center for Architecture Research Grant
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2013
Princeton University Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in the Humanities Fellowship
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2012–13
Princeton University, Joseph Sanford Shanley ’17 Memorial Award
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2011–16
Princeton University, Henry N. Young III Fellowship
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2010
Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada, Aid to Research Workshops and Conferences
- Selected Bibliography
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2022
Gabrielle Chua, "Five Artists Who Are Also Masters in the Kitchen," Tatler Asia. (June 2022). Web.
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2021
Jess Myers, "Esther Choi Is Building a Global Community to Nurture the Next Generation of Designers," Dwell Magazine (Sept./ Oct. 2021): 44–45. Print and web.
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2021
Leilah Stone, "Low Ego, High Impact," Metropolis Magazine (July/ August 2021). Print and web.
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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
Michael Snyder, "Still Life With Fly Swatter, or Hourglass, or Lemons," (Interview) T: The New York Times Style Magazine
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2020
JJ Charlesworth, "All you can read," Art Review
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2020
Whitney Mallett, "Meet Esther Choi, Artist and Author of Subversive Cookbook 'Le Corbuffet'," PIN-UP
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2020
Chris Cohen, “10 Things We Learned from the Season’s Best Books,” Saveur (March 20, 2020) Web
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2020
Daniel Beatty Garcia, "Punishable: Esther Choi Eats Our Idols,"032c, Issue 37 (Winter 2019/20): 292–93. Print and web.
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2020
Kay Schadewald, “Le Corbuffet: (Koch-)Kunst und Kritik,” Architectural Design (Ger.) (Jan. 19, 2020). Web.
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2019
“AN rounds up our must-reads for this fall,” The Architect’s Newspaper (Nov. 15, 2019) Web
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2019
Margaux Krehl, “Art de vivre: << Le Corbuffet>>, le livre de recettes qui cuisine les stars de l’Art,” Vanity Fair (France) (Nov. 9, 2019) Web
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2019
Peter Smisek, Food for Thought,” Icon Magazine (Nov. 1, 2019) Web
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2019
Todd Plummer, “11 Fall Cookbooks for Every Type of Foodie.” Vogue (Oct. 16, 2019) Web
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2019
“41 of the Year’s Most Giftable Coffee-Table Books,” New York Magazine (Nov. 12, 2019) Web
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2019
LinYee Yuan, “Le Corbuffet is a riotous homage to the art and design of cooking” (Interview), MOLD Magazine (Oct. 5, 2019) Web
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2019
Kelly Caminero, “Edible Art: A Menu of Satire and Photography with a Culinary Twist” (Interview), The Daily Beast (Oct. 5, 2019) Web
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2019
Anne Quito, “Le Corbuffet: A new recipe book affectionately skewers culture snobs,” Quartzy (Oct. 4, 2019) Web
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2019
Alexandra Alexa, “This Conceptual Cookbook Riffs on Art, Design and Taste (Literally and Figuratively,” Core 77 (Oct. 2, 2019) Web
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2019
“A Conceptual Cookbook Makes Food Into Sculptures,” Artnet News (Aug. 23, 2019) Web
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2019
Angie Kordic, “An Art Cookbook Like No Other,” (Interview), Widewalls (Oct. 1, 2019) Web
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2019
Emma Orlow, “A Salad for Frida Kahlo and Other Artist-Inspired Recipes,” T: The New York Times Style Magazine (Sept. 20, 2019) Web.