Loewe has always had a soft spot for craft. It’s DNA is after all born out of craft, and with the backing of the Loewe Foundation since 1988 — founded by Enrique Loewe Lunch and currently run by fifth-generation member Sheila Loewe — it continues to be one of the fashion houses both safeguards heritage and pushes artisans and pursue new frontiers in and with their craft. It is thus no surprise that being awarded the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize is a highly regarded honour within the art community, an endeavour introduced by Jonathan Anderson when he was Creative Director of the house in 2016 to celebrate pioneering creativity, passion and artistry across diverse artistic disciplines spanning everything from ceramics, dance, poetry, to book binding, photography and jewellery.
This year, the annual event takes its ninth edition to its first Southeast Asian exhibition at the National Gallery Singapore, with works from the 30 finalists (of over 5,100 applications representing 133 countries) being showcased from 13 May to 14 June 2026. The 2026 LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize and a cash prize of €50,000 went to South Korean ceramic artist Jongjin Park and his work Strata of Illusion, 2025; he was chosen by a distinguished jury composed of leading figures from the worlds of design, architecture, criticism, and museum curatorship, which included the likes of Abraham Thomas, the Met’s Curator of Modern Architecture, Design and Decorative Arts; Olivier Gabet, General Curator of heritage and director of the Département des Objets d’art of the Musée du Louvre, Paris; alongside creative directors of LOEWE, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez.
Jongjin Park’s seat-like form explores the tension between control and collapse, constructed as a dense, rectilinear mass formed from thousands of layered sheets of paper coated in coloured porcelain slip. In the kiln, the paper burns away and the structure yields, slumping and distorting as heat and gravity shape the final form.
The jury chose the work of Jongjin Park for its ability to confound expectations of what ceramics can be, revealing a sculptural presence that is at once unexpected and purposeful. Although rooted in porcelain, it speaks to multiple craft traditions: the use of air to establish form evokes glassblowing, while the layering of paper gestures at bookbinding. The work resists a singular material reading. The jury were fascinated by the poetry of the paper disappearing in the firing process, and the honest imperfection of the slumping form. Jury member and celebrated ceramicist Magdalene Odundo added that what made this piece stand out to her was it’s potential to grow beyond the prize. “Personally as a maker, I feel that the work has mileage to go on developing. I hope the prize will enable the winner to continue developing a dialogue with the work, but also further develop his technique, the material, concepts and ideas, pushing them to the limit.” It is this integrity of making which is an enduring narrative through the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize, where process, risk and material behaviour are central to meaning.
The jury also agreed on two special mentions, each of home also walked home with €5,000.
Baba Tree Master Weavers (Mary Anaba, Charity Aveamah Atuah, Christiana Anaba Akolpoka, Asakiloro Aduko, Mary Ayinbogra, Teni Ayine, Subolo Ayine and Punka Joe) x Álvaro Catalán de Ocón were awarded a special mention for their work Frafra Tapestry (2024). A living anthropological document, this large-scale, communally woven tapestry is based on aerial photography of a traditional village in Ghana’s Gurunsi region. Architectural plans were drawn in Madrid and the textile then developed in Ghana by Master Weaver, Mary Anaba and the BabaTree Master Weavers, using traditional basketry techniques with natural and dyed elephant-grass. The jury admired the use of contemporary technology with ancestral weaving knowledge, and celebrated the cross-continent artistic endeavour to record the collective memory of a threatened architectural tradition and way of life.
The second special mention went to Graziano Visintin for his work Collier, 2025, a two necklace submission that is composed of tiny cubes built from thin sheets of gold and decorated with niello; an ancient metalworking technique that can be traced to the Ancient Egyptians. The jury were impressed by Visintin’s skilled and unusual use of niello to create a contemporary piece of jewellery, and admired the painterly way in which he applied the niello to the gold — creating an effect of endless miniature paintings elegantly strung together.
Our very own Singaporean submission by Taiwan-based Singaporean book-binder Adelene Koh also made quite the wave as the second ever Singaporean finalist in the Craft Prize’s history. Her work, Endless, 2025, explores the book as a living, sculptural form that speaks through touch, rhythm and space. She invites reflection on how books extend beyond crafted objects of knowledge and memory to embody time, curiosity and transformation.
This year’s edition of the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize’s selection of works approach making as a careful negotiation between balance, instability and tension, with the jury given the key word of “contrast” to guide their deliberation. On why joining the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize is different to other contests, Abraham Thomas names its open submission format as one of the many reasons. “I love seeing such a range of entries from across the world, and people at different stages of their careers. This year, we had a German jewellery maker and metalsmith, Dorothea Prühl, who is in her 80s. And then we had artists in their early 20s or early 30s. So it’s an amazing range of both geographical range, but also material types.”
“I also love that it comes together in a beautiful exhibition,” he adds. “It’s not just chosen online. That’s another example of why this prize will always be different to other prizes, because it’s just given a level of not just investment, but also care that aligns with Loewe’s philosophy of always putting craft first. Even if there are people who think social media can give the finite experience of such works, at least it engages audiences. If it can raise the profile of craft or bring these craft objects to the floor, I think observing this spectacle from these platforms does no disservice to cultural institutions. In the end, we have to meet audiences where they are.”
Once you are done with this story, click here to catch up with our May 2026 issue.