Charles Esche is a curator and writer, Director of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, and Co-Director of Afterall Journal and Books at Central St. Martins, London. He is a board member of Manifesta and lectures at numerous European art academies. Previously, he was Director of Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö (2000–2004), founded the international research project protoacademy at Edinburgh College of Art (1998–2002), and served as Visual Arts Director at Tramway, Glasgow (1993–1997).

He has curated major international exhibitions, including the 9th Istanbul Biennial (2005), the Gwangju Biennale, Korea (2002), the 5th U3 Triennial, Ljubljana (2010), and the 2nd and 3rd Riwaq Biennales, Ramallah (2007, 2009). Earlier he co-curated Tate Triennial: Intelligence at Tate Britain (2000). His essays have appeared in Artforum, Frieze, Parkett and Art Monthly, with a collection of his writings published as Modest Proposals (Baglam Press, 2005).