LOEWE CRAFT PRIZE

Launched by the Loewe Foundation in 2016, the second edition of the annual LOEWE Craft Prize is a celebration of contemporary craftsmanship. Avant-garde and craftsmanship in an exhibition that summarises the best of craft with artistic ambition around the world.
The finalists of the LOEWE Craft Prize second edition are on show at the Design Museum, London, from 4 May – 17 June. An unprecedented opportunity to meet the most outstanding international and cross-generational works on ceramics, jewellery, textiles, woodwork, glass, metalwork, furniture, papercraft and lacquer. Arisanal excellence has been an integral part of LOEWE's identity ever since it was founded in Madrid as an atelier for skilled leather craftsmen in 1846. This unwavering commitment to tradition, innovation, and craftsmanship has steered the luxury house across three separates centuries. Under the creative direction of Jonathan Anderson, these values are being reconfigured with an injection of modernity and cultural awareness.
 Selected from close to 2.000 submission across 86 countries on 5 continents, each of the 30 finalists exemplify artistic finesse and technical prowess.

TOP: Ann Van Hoey: Vassel ispired by geometry and precision of japanese origami - Irina Razumovskaya: Porcelain column captures the essence of Soviet-era architectural relics
DOWN: Christopher Kurtz: Sculptural constellation of hand-carved basswood stretches - Julian Watts: Playful reinterpretation of the utilitarian bench

TOP: Mercedes Vicente: The contorted form of this canvass sits as a poetic reverse of the way this ubiquitous material is used in art - Deirdre McLoughlin: Voluminous vessel that captures the depths of a vast body of water
DOWN: Shohei Yokoyama: Inflated bubble of glassware formed from its creator's own 'breath of life' - Joe Hogan: rounded basket sourced wood from a storm-felled beech tree

TOP: Have Cho Chung: multi-hued vessel is an ode to the age-old ottchil technique - Steffen Dam: Alchemical mastery of glassware techniques frames
DOWN: Wycliffe Stutchbury: three-pannelled room divider produced combining several woods - Yeonsoon Chang: wall-mounted piece that tells the multi-dimensional story of textiles

TOP: Arko: an agglomeration of rice straw, this wall-mounted artwork arks back to a more traditional area - Sam Thao Duong: collection of jewellery inspired by the undiscovered mysteries of the deep ocean
DOWN: Paul Adie: welded steel pendants inspired by terrestrial contours - Simone Pheulpin: sculptural piece that trasforms humble cloth into something akin to prehistoric geology

TOP: Takeshi Yasuda: compressed vessel which gleams confident with gold from within - Takuro Kuwata: handling of porcelain, platinum and steel this container brims with the possibilities of chance
DOWN: Aneta Regel: three vessels that are monuments to the way material performance reveals the inexorable passage of time - Joonyong Kim: ethereal bowl made with glass, polychromatic colour, and the juxtaposition between opacity and translucency 

Marie Janssen: ceramic stove that retains its symbolic value as a source of warmith and embodiment of the mystery

TOP: Min Chen: concave bamboo stool inspired by the slow pace and tranquil atmosphere of his home city of Hangzhou - Rita Soto: re-working traditional Chilean horsehair micro-basketry, the biomorphic forms are an expression of local identity
DOWN: Richard McVetis: sixty cubes over the space of sixty hours that creating a tactile, tangible moment