estherchoistudio@gmail.com
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Esther Choi is a second-generation Korean American ceramic artist born in Queens, New York, and based in Portland, Oregon. Working mainly in handbuilt, mid-fire ceramics, she makes sculptures that turn soft materials, like fabric and plastic bags, into clay. Her work looks at how everyday objects hold memory and how single moments shape the ones that follow.

She is currently in the three-year Advanced Mentorship Studies program at Anderson Ranch Arts Center. Her work has recently been shown in the group exhibitions Intimate Structures at Flohaus Gallery, New York, and The Ribbon at Antler & Talon, Portland, Oregon.

My practice is rooted in turning soft, everyday materials into clay. I handbuild sculptural vessels shaped like folded, wrinkled fabric and crinkled plastic bags. They look pliable and in motion, even though they are fired solid. Some hang on the wall; others sit on a table. I glaze them in bold colors, the true colors of the objects they reference, so they sit somewhere between familiar and unexpected.

The meaning is in the folds. A crease records what was carried, how it was held and where it has been, and no two are alike, the same way no two folded shirts are the same. I think of each fold as a moment. It stands on its own, but it’s linked to the ones before and after it, and some shape far more than others. Building these surfaces is how I trace those connections through memory, relationships, places and everyday life.

At first glance, the forms look random, but they follow an order I find by intuition. I work the clay until it reaches a balance that feels right.

I want these pieces to feel familiar, to offer comfort and belonging, and to carry viewers back into memories of their own.