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LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2024

Award  /  16 May 2024
Published: 30.09.2023
Moe Watanabe. Vessel: Transfer Surface, 2023. Walnut bark. 37 x 40 x 37 cm. Awarded at: LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2023. Special Mention Loewe Craft Prize 2023
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. This simple yet powerful box is made from walnut bark collected from the Tohoku region of Japan. The bark has been stripped and then moulded to create a simple box shape made from one large strip, showing a fantastic understanding and respect for the material in its manipulation. Overlapping at the side, the bark is secured with simple stitches to hold it in place, and its shape recalls the Japanese tradition of Ikebana vases. The box’s simplicity of form allows the respect of the material and the direct nature of the wood to come to the fore.. Moe Watanabe
Vessel: Transfer Surface, 2023
Walnut bark
37 x 40 x 37 cm
Awarded at: LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2023
Special Mention Loewe Craft Prize 2023

This simple yet powerful box is made from walnut bark collected from the Tohoku region of Japan. The bark has been stripped and then moulded to create a simple box shape made from one large strip, showing a fantastic understanding and respect for the material in its manipulation. Overlapping at the side, the bark is secured with simple stitches to hold it in place, and its shape recalls the Japanese tradition of Ikebana vases. The box’s simplicity of form allows the respect of the material and the direct nature of the wood to come to the fore.
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.

Intro
The LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize was launched in 2016 to showcase excellence, artistic merit and newness in modern craftsmanship. It seeks to acknowledge and support international artists who demonstrate an exceptional ability to create objects of superior aesthetic value, with the winner receiving 50,000 euros and two special mentions receiving 10,000 euros.
 
The LOEWE FOUNDATION was established as a private cultural Foundation in 1988 by Enrique Loewe Lynch, a fourth-generation member of LOEWE’s founding family. Today, under the direction of his daughter Sheila Loewe, the Foundation continues to promote creativity, support educational programmes and safeguard heritage in the fields of poetry, dance, photography, art, and craft. The Foundation was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts, the highest honour granted by the Spanish Government, in 2002. One of the primary purposes for which the LOEWE FOUNDATION was established was to support design and craftsmanship.

The LOEWE Craft Prize seeks to acknowledge and support international artisans of any age (over 18) or gender who demonstrate an exceptional ability to create objects of superior aesthetic value. By identifying work that reinterprets existing knowledge to make it relevant today while reflecting its maker’s personal language and distinct hand, the LOEWE FOUNDATION aims to highlight the continuing contribution of craft to the culture of our time.

About the Craft Prize
Conceived by creative director Jonathan Anderson, the award aims to acknowledge the importance of craft in today’s culture. In celebrating the joy of making things with your hands and recognising working artists whose talent, vision and will to innovate set a standard for the future, the prize pays tribute to LOEWE’s own beginnings as a collective craft workshop in 1846.

Experts Panel
An expert panel composed of artists, essayists, curators and designers will consider all submitted works in order to select a shortlist of up to 30 submissions. New additions to this year’s expert panel include glass artist and 2023 Craft Prize finalist Keeryong Choi and metal artist and 2023 Craft Prize finalist Kaori Juzu. 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.

In this call, the Experts Panel will be composed of:
- Andrew Bonacina, LOEWE Art Advisor and independent curator.
- Antonia Boström, Director of Collections at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
- Hyeyoung  Cho,  Chairwoman at the Korea  Association of Art and Design.
- Keeryong Choi, glass artist and finalist of the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2023.
- Andile Dyalvane, ceramist and finalist of the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2022.
- Sara Flynn, ceramicist and finalist of the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2017.
- Kaori Juzu, metal artist and finalist of the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2023.
- Wolfgang Lösche, Head of Exhibitions and Fairs at the Chamber of Skilled Trades, Munich.
- Juha Marttila, LOEWE Leathergoods Design Director.
- Mary Savig, Curator of Craft at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Renwick Gallery,  Washington DC.
- Anatxu Zabalbeascoa (Executive Secretary), architecture and design correspondent for El País.

2024 Jury
- Abraham Thomas, Curator of Modern Architecture, Design and Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
- Anatxu Zabalbeascoa, Architecture and design correspondent for El País.
- Deyan Sudjic, Essayist and Director Emeritus of the Design Museum,  London.
- Eriko Inazaki, Ceramicist and the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2023 winner.
- Jonathan Anderson, LOEWE Creative Director.
- Magdalene  Odundo, Ceramicist.
- Minsuk Cho, Architect and Venice Gold Lion winner.
- Naoto Fukasawa, Designer and Director of the Japan Folk Crafts Museum, Tokyo.
- Olivier Gabet, Director of the Art Department at the Louvre Museum, Paris.
- Patricia Urquiola, Architect and industrial designer.
- Sheila Loewe, (Chairwoman) President of the LOEWE FOUNDATION.
- Wang Shu, Architect and Pritzker Prize winner.


The winner of the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2024 will be announced at the opening ceremony in Paris, in spring 2024.


> Rules of Entry LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2024
> FAQ's LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2024
> Open Call LOEWE Craft Prize 2024. 7th edition at Klimt02

 
2023 exhibition display at The Noguchi Museum, in New York.
. Digital version of the exhibition.
2023 exhibition display at The Noguchi Museum, in New York.
Digital version of the exhibition

© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
2023 exhibition display at The Noguchi Museum, in New York.
. Digital version of the exhibition.
2023 exhibition display at The Noguchi Museum, in New York.
Digital version of the exhibition

© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.