Esther Cho

Esther Cho is a Korean-Amer­i­can inter­dis­ci­pli­nary artist, designer, and paper­maker based in Madison, WI. She holds a MFA in wood­work­ing and furni­ture design from Univer­sity of Wiscon­sin-Madison and a dual BFA from Virginia Common­wealth Univer­sity in Craft & Mate­r­ial Studies and Inte­rior Design. She is currently pursu­ing her second MFA from the Univer­sity of Wiscon­sin with a focus in Design Studies and material culture. 

Her research-based studio prac­tice focuses on devis­ing narra­tive instal­la­tions for archiv­ing the history and retelling the stories of Asian-Amer­i­cans, chil­dren of immi­grants, and Asian dias­po­ras to consider the expe­ri­ence of iden­tity, gender, loss of lineage, and cultural discon­nect. In 2017, she received the Windgate-Lamar Fellow­ship from the Center of Crafts to travel to South Korea to study the tradi­tional process of Korean paper-making (hanji) and its related craft forms. Most recently, she has been awarded the Caxton Club Grant and the ALL Prize.