The Loewe Craft Prize Lands in Singapore

After extensive deliberation by the jury, this year’s award was awarded to experimental ceramic artist Jongjin Park. illusion layerA chair-like structure is made from many sheets of paper coated in porcelain, which are then layered together to form a mesmerizing pastel-hued mille-feuille that then collapses in on itself—an effect that, Parker explains, is unintentional and occurs in the kiln. The jury recognized the work’s duality of hard and soft, combining the fragility of paper with the structure of porcelain. “It obscures the true nature of its materiality, and I think that’s why we think it’s a testament to the vastness of ceramics,” said Abraham Thomas, curator of modern architecture, design and decorative arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Japanese and Korean singer Gisele announced Park as the winner on a humid night in Singapore, where an energetic crowd of brightly dressed attendees gathered to drink champagne and cheer for the finalists. In addition to Park Ji-sung, who received a prize of 50,000 euros, Korean artists overall performed strongly in this year’s shortlist, with a total of 6 finalists representing the country. “Korea is a really important country in terms of contemporary craftsmanship. Elsewhere in the world, we have to explain what we think about craftsmanship and what we want to support and what we care about,” Loewe said. “That’s not the case in Korea, we don’t have to teach them anything!”

Some of the works from this year’s Craft Awards. Photo: Courtesy of the Loewe Craft Prize.

In addition to the top prize, two special mentions went to Italian jewelry designer Graziano Visintin, who created a necklace composed of strands of delicate cubes made from thin gold flakes, and a 3-meter-wide wall tapestry developed by a master Ghanaian baba tree weaver as a “living anthropological document” of Ghana’s Frafra community. Woven from elephant grass, the piece was produced in collaboration with Spanish artist Álvaro Catalán de Ocón and uses high-altitude drone photography to paint the tapestry’s rich textural patterns.

These explorations of cultural heritage, alongside deconstructed forms and unexpected media combinations, became recurring themes throughout the shortlist. Chinese artist Nan Wei created a small deep red sculpture using lacquer, leather and linen, while Japanese artist Nobuyuki Tanaka created a striking two-meter-tall conical structure using lacquer, leather and linen. Close roomis a dry paint technique dating back over 1,300 years that gives the majestic shapes an inky depth.