Charles Esche (born 1962, England) is a curator and writer. Since 2004, he is Director of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands. He is co-founder and co-editor of Afterall Journal and Afterall Books with Mark Lewis. Afterall is a contemporary art publication which was first launched in 1998 and is based at Central St. Martins College of Art and Design, London.

He is a theoretical advisor at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam. In 2009 and 2007 he was co-curator with Khalil Rabah of the 2nd RIWAQ Biennial, Ramallah, Palestine. In 2005 he was co-curator of the 9th International Istanbul Biennial with Vasif Kortun[1] and in 2002 the co-curator with Hou Hanru and Song Wan Kyung of the Gwangju Biennale[2], Republic of Korea. Between 2000 and 2004 he was the Director of Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmo, Sweden.

He has written for art catalogues and magazines and a selection of his texts was published in 2005 under the title "Modest Proposals" by Baglam Press, Istanbul in Turkish and English, edited by Serkan Ozkaya.