LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2026 Winners

Jongjin Park was chosen from 30 finalists by a distinguished jury composed of leading figures from the worlds of design, architecture, criticism, and museum curatorship, including Frida Escobedo, Patricia Urquiola, Abraham Thomas and Olivier Gabet alongside creative directors of LOEWE, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez. The winner has been awarded €50,000 and each special mention will receive €5,000.

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. In their deliberations, the jury sought to identify the most outstanding works in terms of technical accomplishment, skill, innovation and artistic vision. 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. 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:
Baba Tree Master Weavers (Mary Anaba, Charity Aveamah Atuah, Christiana Anaba Akolpoka, Asakiloro Aduko, Mary Ayinbogra, Teni Ayine, Subolo Ayine and Punka Joe) × Álvaro Catalán de Ocón (Ghana / b. 1975, Spain) 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 Baba Tree 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.

Graziano Visintin (b. 1954, Italy) for his work Collier, 2025. These two necklaces are composed of tiny cubes built from thin sheets of gold and decorated with niello; an ancient metalworking technique. 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.


This year’s edition of the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize presents a selection of works that approach making as a careful negotiation between balance, instability and tension. Ordered systems have been subtly unsettled: restrained palettes are interrupted by sudden shifts in colour, smooth surfaces are breached by moments of rupture, and precise geometries are softened, warped or displaced. References to the natural world have informed both material choice and process, and growth, decay and cyclical transformation are embedded through acts of cutting, bending, weaving and layering. Cultural traditions have provided further points of orientation: practices drawn from basketry, textile, dyeing and architectural making have been reinterpreted through contemporary contexts, scales and collaborations. Taken together, the works position craft as a living language, shaped by continuity and interruption alike.


All 30 of the shortlisted works will be exhibited at National Gallery Singapore from 13 May until 14 June 2026. The exhibition is available to view online and will be documented in an exhibition catalogue.


They were selected from over 5,100 submissions by artists representing 133 countries and regions in February 2026 by a panel of experts. Those shortlisted represent 20 countries and regions, and work across a range of mediums including ceramics, woodwork, textiles, furniture, bookbinding, glass, metal, jewellery and lacquer.
A tribute to LOEWE’s beginnings as a collective craft workshop in 1846, the annual Craft Prize was launched by the LOEWE FOUNDATION in 2016 to celebrate excellence, artistic merit and innovation in modern craft. The award aims to acknowledge the importance of craft in today’s culture and to recognise artists whose talent, vision and will to innovate promise to set a new standard for the future.

‘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.
/ Sheila Loewe, President of the LOEWE FOUNDATION

It has been a privilege to join the jury of the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize. 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.
/ Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, LOEWE creative directors


About the winner:
Jongjin Park (Republic of Korea / lives in Seoul, Republic of Korea) b. 1982: Jongjin Park is a ceramic artist and assistant professor at Seoul Women’s University, Seoul. He holds an MA in Ceramics from Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff, and an MFA, BFA, and PhD in Ceramics from Kookmin University, Seoul. His practice merges the discipline of craft with the conceptual approach of collectible design. Park has exhibited internationally at Design Miami, Miami; PAD London Art+Design, London; EMERGE Singapore, Singapore; and Collect, London. Recent collaborations with luxury brands reflect his interest in bridging traditional making with design culture and technology. In 2024, he was awarded the Excellence Prize at the Gyeonggi International Ceramic Competition, Yeoju.


About the special mentions:
Graziano Visintin (Italy / lives in Padua, Italy) b. 1954: Graziano Visintin is a Paduan jewellery artist. He studied at the Pietro Selvatico Art Institute of Padua, Padua, and taught there from 1976 to 2019. Primarily working in gold, enamel and niello, Visintin has received multiple prizes for his jewellery, including the International Jewellery Art Prize, 5th Tokyo Triennal, Tokyo (1983); the Herbert Hofmann Prize, Schmuckszene 88, Munich (1988); a prize at “ART + DESIGN”, Hamburg (1988); and most recently, an award at the 57th International Exhibition of the Japan Enamelling Artists Association, Tokyo (2024). His most recent display of works took place at Galerie Marzee, Nijmegen, in 2025.

Baba Tree Master Weavers (Mary Anaba, Charity Aveamah Atuah, Christiana Anaba Akolpoka, Asakiloro Aduko, Mary Ayinbogra, Teni Ayine, Subolo Ayine and Punka Joe) × Álvaro Catalán de Ocón (Ghana / Spain) b. 1975: Álvaro Catalán de Ocón is a Spanish designer trained in product design at the Isituto Europeo di Design, Milan, and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London. In 2004, he established his studio, first in Barcelona and later in Madrid, where he continues to develop his practice independently, alongside collaborating with external design brands. His work is held in public collections including Centre Pompidou, Paris; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; M+ West Kowloon Museum, Hong Kong and MAK Design Lab, Vienna.
In 2023, he was awarded the National Design Award by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Madrid, recognising his contribution to sustainable design. The work submitted for the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize was developed in partnership with a collective from the Baba Tree Basket Weavers – a community of more than 250 artisans in a remote town in the Upper East Region of Ghana called Bolgatanga.