LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize 2026 Winners Revealed
LOEWE Foundation announces winner and special mentions
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The LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize has become one of the most significant international awards dedicated to contemporary craft.
The annual event celebrates innovation and artistic merit, recognising makers whose work is expanding the possibilities of this discipline.
Now in its ninth edition, the prize continues to offer a snapshot of modern craft practises at an international scale. Selected from over 5,000 submissions across 133 countries and regions, this year's shortlist brings together 30 international makers whose work spans ceramics, textiles, woodwork, jewellery, glass, furniture, bookbinding, lacquer and metalwork.
"Craft has been at the heart of LOEWE since the House was founded 180 years ago. Across each of the shortlisted works, we encountered an extraordinary sense of commitment, creativity, and innovation. Together, they stand as a powerful testament to the enduring possibilities of making.”
- LOEWE Creative Directors Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez
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Meet the Winner: Jongjin Park
Among the 30 shortlisted works, LOEWE Foundation has announced South Korean ceramic artist Jongjin Park as the winner of the 2026 Craft Prize for Strata of Illusion.
Chosen by a distinguished jury comprising leading figures from the worlds of design, architecture, criticism and museum curatorship, his work stood out for its remarkable ability to challenge conventional ideas of ceramics.
Constructed from thousands of layered sheets of paper coated in coloured porcelain slip, the seat-like form undergoes a dramatic transformation during firing. As the paper burns away, heat and gravity cause the structure to slump and distort.
The resulting piece occupies a compelling space between sculpture and object, drawing connections across multiple craft traditions. While rooted in porcelain, its layered construction recalls bookbinding and its reliance on air and transformation lean towards aspects of glassblowing.
Park's triumph reflects a broader interest within this year's prize in works that embrace uncertainty and risk. Rather than concealing the effects of process, Strata of Illusion celebrates them; allowing heat, gravity and material transformation to become active participants in the final form.
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Special Mentions Announced
Alongside this year's winner, the jury announced two special mentions in recognition of exceptional achievement.
The first was awarded to the Baba Tree Master Weavers – Mary Anaba, Charity Aveamah Atuah, Christiana Anaba Akolpoka, Asakiloro Aduko, Mary Ayinbogra, Teni Ayine, Subolo Ayine and Punka Joe – in collaboration with Spanish designer Álvaro Catalán de Ocón for Frafra Tapestry.
Based on aerial photography of a traditional village in Ghana's Gurunsi region, the large-scale, communally woven tapestry combines contemporary technology with ancestral knowledge. Architectural plans were drawn in Madrid with the textile then developed in Ghana by Master Weaver, Mary Anaba and the Baba Tree Masters using traditional basketry techniques with natural and dyed elephant grass.
This collaborative endeavour was recognised for documenting and preserving the collective memory of an architectural tradition and way of life increasingly under threat.
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The second special mention was awarded to Italian jewellery artist Graziano Visintin for Collier, a pair of necklaces composed of meticulously crafted gold cubes decorated with niello, an ancient metalworking technique.
The work demonstrates Visintin's ability to translate a historic craft process into a distinctly contemporary piece, with each individual element creating an effect akin to miniature paintings.
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On View in Singapore and Online
All 30 shortlisted works are currently on view at the National Gallery Singapore from 13 May until 14 June 2026. Bringing together some of the most compelling voices in contemporary craft today, the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to experience the breadth of approaches, materials and ideas represented in this year's prize.
While the shortlisted works span a broad range of disciplines and materials, a careful balance between instability and tension emerges. Questions of transformation, process and material behaviour run throughout the selection, with artists embracing distortion, imperfection and unpredictability as part of the making process. Traditional techniques are revisited through contemporary approaches, demonstrating how craft continues to evolve while remaining rooted in inherited knowledge.
Reflecting on this year's cohort, Sheila Loewe, President of the LOEWE Foundation, shared:
“In the ninth edition of the LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize, I am more proud than ever. This year’s shortlist has been one of the hardest to judge and provided the jury with the opportunity to discuss the far reaches of what craft can be – and will be in the future. I feel continually honoured to be at the heart of such discovery, excitement and skill in the world of craft and witness close hand the creative endeavour of such extraordinary artists.”
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For those unable to visit in person, the exhibition can also be viewed online through LOEWE's digital platform, The Room.
