Tag Archives: LOEWE Craft Prize

LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2022 – Submissions now open

LOEWE is pleased to open submissions for the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2022, which will take place in Seoul in spring next year. Entries to the fifth edition of the prize will be accepted  until 25 October 2021.

 

 

Fanglu Lin, ‘SHE’. Winner of the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2022.

An expert panel composed of artists, artisans, essayists, curators and designers will consider allsubmitted works in order to select a shortlist of up to 30 submissions. New additions to the expert panel this year include, Peter Bauhuis (metal artist and finalist of the Craft Prize 2021), Jiyong Lee (glass artist and finalist of the Craft Prize 2021), Juha Marttila (LOEWE Leather Goods Design Director), Kavita Parmar (textile designer) and Zizipho Poswa (ceramicist).

The panel’s choice will be based on a number of key criteria: originality, clear artistic vision and  merit, precise execution, material excellence, innovative value and a distinct authorial mark.

The shortlisted works will then form the basis of an exhibition due to go on display in Seoul, South Korea from which the Prize’s Jury will select the winning piece. New members of the Jury for 2022 include Magdalene Odundo (world-renown Kenyanborn British ceramicist), Abraham Thomas (Curator of Modern Architecture, Design, and Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan  Museum of Art, New York) and Fanglu Lin (textile artist and winner of the LOEWE FOUNDATION  Craft Prize 2021).

Recreation of the main hall of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2021 digital exhibiton.

The winner of this year’s prize, Fanglu Lin, was announced on 25 May 2021 to coincide with the opening of the digital exhibition of the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2021. which will remain online until 25 October 2021.

You can download the rules of entry for the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize here.

Genta Ishizuka wins the LOEWE Craft Prize 2019

Surface Tactility #11, 2018 by Genta Ishizuka wins the Craft Prize 2019

Surface Tactility #11, 2018 by Genta Ishizuka

Jonathan Anderson, LOEWE creative director, commented on this year’s winner: ‘Ishizuka’s work proves that craft can be open and shows the freedom of creation. His use of an ancient lacquer technique in a contemporary form breaks conventions and represents a new sculptural vision in craft.’

The Jury also agreed upon two special mentions:

Harry Morgan, for the work ‘Untitled’ from Dichotomy Series, 2018. The jury commented: ‘This radical work by Harry Morgan is a paradoxical confrontation of materials which don’t belong together. He brings a craft spirit to common materials.’

‘Untitled’ from Dichotomy Series, 2018 by Harry Morgan,

Kazuhito Takadoi for the work KADO (Angle), 2018. The jury admired the work for ‘being a craft without a name’ and applauded the fact that Takadoi is involved in the piece from conception, from growing the material in his garden to creating an object with a very powerful form.

KADO (Angle), 2018 by Kazuhito Takadoi

Jennifer Lee, Winner of the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2018, observer of this year’s prize said: ‘This year’s finalists prove that old traditions of making continue to surprise us and be radical and contemporary. The prize makes you inquisitive and opens your mind to new ways of making and working with materials.’

From the 26 June to 22 July, Genta Ishizuka’s winning piece and all the finalists’ works will be showcased at a free exhibition at Isamu Noguchi’s indoor stone garden ‘Heaven’ inside the Sogetsu Kaikan building in Tokyo. From ceramics, furniture and glassware, to basketry, jewellery and blacksmithing, the show demonstrates the artists’ quests to reconcile the ancient with the avant-garde.

Craft experts convene in Madrid

On 22nd January, the LOEWE Foundation and the IED organised a talk on the subject of contemporary craft that brought together some of the most relevant names in design, craft, architecture, journalism, and curation, including Antonia Boström, Sara Flynn, Ramón Puig Cuyàs, Joonyong Kim, and Anatxu Zabalbeascoa, all of them linked to the LOEWE Craft Prize.  Personal experiences, reflections on current creativity, and main sources of inspiration were some of the highlights of this fascinating panel discussion, which took place in English in front of an audience of 120 people.

Anatxu Zabalbeascoa – Journalist, Art Historian, and President of the LOEWE Craft Prize Jury – moderated a discussion among experts as diverse as their roles in today’s craft. The event led to an enjoyable conversation where a number of relevant topics were discussed, including the transition from traditional to artistic craftsmanship, or the importance that beauty and contemporary creation hold in today’s world.

The pieces created by jeweller Ramón Puig Cuyàs, which have been showcased internationally since 1972, are now prominently featured in public and private collections alike. He has been the recipient of the Herbert Hoffman of Munich Award, the Premi Ciutat de Barcelona Special Award or the Danish Craft Bogprice, amongst others. His career, which includes ample teaching experience, has rewarded him with a wisdom he readily transmits in his conversations and speeches.

Antonia Boström –Director of Collections at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London- spent more than twenty years working in American art museums before returning to the V&A, where her professional career had begun. She has carried out extensive research in the field of sculpture and is a prolific writer in this artistic field. Joonyong Kim is a professor at Cheongju University and a 2018 LOEWE Craft Prize finalist. The work produced by this Korean leading glass artist has been shown in individual and collective exhibitions worldwide. Irish potter Sara Flynn, who was one of the finalists in the first LOEWE Craft Prize, went on to become a member of the Experts Panel in the following two editions. Thanks to her work, for which she is known internationally, Flynn has participated in many artistic retreats abroad, and has had a prolific career as a guest speaker and jury member of numerous craft contests.

A meeting of artists who were not shy in showing their strongest creative weapons. Following their interventions, they answered a large number of questions and received congratulatory feedback from a diverse audience that filled the Aula Magna of the IED Madrid headquarters.

Photo Captions: Antonia Boström talks about her work in the presence of Anatxu Zabalbeascoa, Ramón Puig Cuyàs, Joonyong Kim, and Sara Flynn. Ramón Puig Cuyàs. Sara Flynn and Joonyong Kim © Álvaro Tomé for the LOEWE Foundation.

LOEWE Craft Prize 2019 – finalists announced

The LOEWE FOUNDATION is proud to unveil the 29 artists who have been shortlisted for the Craft Prize 2019. The finalists were recognized for their fundamentally important contributions to the development of contemporary craft, with the submitted works presenting a diverse spectrum of techniques, media and modes of expression.

This year’s finalists were chosen by a panel of nine experts from close to over 2,500 submissions (an increase of 44% from last year) by artisans representing 100 countries. The rigorous selection process culminated with the Experts Panel convening in Madrid for two days, where they judged the most outstanding works on their technical accomplishment, innovation and artistic vision.

Anatxu Zabalbeascoa, Executive Secretary of the Experts Panel, stated: ‘The LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize sets the level of skills, will and artistic ambition for which craft should strive.’

The 29 finalists´ works are being exhibited from 26 June – 22 July 2019 at Isamu Noguchi´s indoor stone garden ´Heaven´ at the Sogetsu Kaikan in Tokyo, where the overall winner will be revealed.

Find out more at loewecraftprize.com

LOEWE Craft Prize 2019 – Submissions period now closed

The deadline to enter this year´s LOEWE Craft Prize passed at midnight on October 31. We have been utterly overwhelmed by the response and quality of the work submitted, receiving more than 2500 entries from over 100 countries. We would like to thank everyone who has participated. If you were unable to enter, there is always next year.

Now we hand over the reins to our esteemed Experts Panel who will be reviewing the submissions over the course of the next three months, after which the shortlist of finalists will be officially announced.

The LOEWE Craft Prize in the Design Museum in London

Pale, Shadowed Speckled Traces, Fading Elipse, Bronze Specks, Tilted Shelf by Jennifer Lee was chosen from the shortlisted thirty finalists as the winner of the LOEWE Craft Prize 2018. The prize was launched to celebrate excellence, artistic merit, and creativity in the contemporary craft landscape and this year’s recipient was Jennifer Lee (born in Aberdeenshire, United Kingdom, in 1956), a Scottish potter who studied at the Edinburgh College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. The winning piece –made of stoneware clay mixed with natural oxides– together with the finalist works will be on display in an exhibition at the Design Museum in London until 17th June.

LOEWE Creative Director Jonathan Anderson, the person behind the prize, remarked at the time of its launch that “craft is the essence of LOEWE. As a House, we are about craft in the purest sense of the word. That is where our modernity lies, and it will always be relevant”. For the Jury’s Chairwoman, Anatxu Zabalbeascoa, this year’s finalists –whose age ranged from 26 to 76– represented “a multigenerational snapshot of the utmost excellence in craft today”. Zabalbeascoa also said that the thirty shortlisted artists “reflect an almost alchemical manipulation of each medium’s possibilities and reward those who have mastered traditional skills in order to transform them for the contemporary age”.

Since it was established, the Design Museum in London, one of the world’s leading centres devoted to architecture and design, has welcomed more than five million people and staged over 100 exhibitions with objects from a wide range of fields including fashion and graphic design. The museum is located in a landmark modernist building in the heart of Kensington that was remodelled by architectural designer John Pawson. Its halls will be showcasing the thirty LOEWE Craft Prize finalist works, including the winning piece, and two special mentions given by the Jury: Tea Bowl, by Japanese potter Takuro Kuwata (Hiroshima, 1981) and Croissance XL (XL Growth), by French textile artist Simone Pheulphin (Nancy, 1941). The LOEWE Craft Prize 2018 believes that all finalists have significantly contributed to the development of modern craftsmanship and, as such, will document the legacy of the exhibition in a special catalogue that will include all their works.

LOEWE Craft Prize 2018. Design Museum, London. From 4th May to 17th June 2018 [open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m].

Photo Captions: LOEWE Craft Prize 2018 in the Design Museum London.

Tokyo’s 21_21 Design Sight welcomes the LOEWE Craft Prize

The LOEWE FOUNDATION continues to demonstrate its international commitment to artistic craftsmanship with the traveling exhibition of the 26 LOEWE Craft Prize finalist works, whose next stop is Tokyo´s 21_21 Design Sight. The building designed by architect Tadao Ando will house the exhibit until 30th November.

Among the more than 3,900 participants, the Experts Panel selected these works that include ceramics, textiles, paper, jewellery, furniture and glass. A collection that shows an innovative reinterpretation of traditional techniques through the personal and unique work of each artist.

LOEWE Craft Prize. Until 30th November in 21_21 Design Sight, Tokyo (Japan). Midtown Garden, Tokyo Midtown, 9-7-6 Akasaka, Minato-ku (Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Photos: Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, 21_21 Design Sight Tokyo (Japan).