The LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize has announced the 30 finalists for its 2026 edition, with the shortlisted works set to go on view at National Gallery Singapore from May 13 through June 14, 2026. Selected from more than 5,100 submissions spanning 133 countries and regions, this year’s edition reinforces the Prize’s role as one of the most significant global platforms for contemporary craft.
Founded in 2016 in tribute to Loewe’s beginnings as a collective craft workshop in 1846, the annual award recognizes artists whose technical mastery and artistic vision expand the possibilities of material practice. Across ceramics, glass, textiles, wood, metal, lacquer, and jewelry, the 2026 shortlist for the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize proposes craft not as static tradition, but as a living language shaped equally by inheritance and experimentation.
As Sheila Loewe, President of the Loewe Foundation, explains, “The Craft Prize continues to reveal the extraordinary diversity and ambition of contemporary craft. The works shortlisted for the 2026 edition demonstrate how deeply rooted traditions can be reimagined through innovation, skill and imagination. Bringing this exhibition to Singapore reflects the global dialogue at the heart of the Prize and our ongoing commitment to supporting artists at pivotal moments in their careers.”
Loewe Foundation Craft Prize: Craft as Continuity and Disruption
Adelene Koh. Courtesy of Loewe Foundation Craft Prize 2026.
Álvaro Catalán de Ocón. Courtesy of Loewe Foundation Craft Prize 2026.
The shortlisted artists for the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize reflect a wide geographical and conceptual range. This year’s finalists include Baba Tree Master Weavers in collaboration with Álvaro Catalán de Ocón; British sculptor Jobe Burns; Korean metalsmith Soohyun Chou; Danish ceramicist Morten Løbner Espersen; Australian glass artist Liam Fleming; Swedish wood artist Oskar Gustafsson; British ceramicist Susan Halls; Norwegian textile sculptor Gjertrud Hals; Taiwanese bamboo artist Chia-Chen Hsieh; Singaporean book artist Adelene Koh; Danish glass artist Maria Koshenkova; Korean wood sculptor Jong In Lee; Korean artist Somyeong Lee; Japanese textile artist Misako Nakahira; Nigerian textile artist Fadekemi Ogunsanya; Korean silversmith Jieun Park; Korean ceramicist Jongjin Park; Spanish ceramic artist Rafael Pérez Fernández; German jeweler Dorothea Prühl; Australian glass artist Kirstie Rea; Brazilian sculptor Vivi Rosa; Haitian wood artist Hervé Sabin; Zimbabwean ceramicist Xanthe Somers; Korean mixed-media artist Coco Sung; Japanese lacquer master Nobuyuki Tanaka; Italian jeweler Graziano Visintin; Belgian wood artist Rayah Wauters; Chinese lacquer artist Nan Wei; American ceramicist Jane Yang-D’Haene; and Japanese glass artist Ayano Yoshizumi.
Across their practices, ordered systems are subtly unsettled. Porcelain volumes fracture under controlled firing, lacquered leather becomes sculptural architecture, bamboo grids warp into spherical tension, and glass relaxes at extreme temperatures. Techniques rooted in basketry, weaving, dyeing, and architectural craft are reinterpreted through contemporary scale and technology.
Anatxu Zabalbeascoa, Executive Secretary of the Expert Panel for the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, describes the scope of this edition: “The ninth edition of the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize reflects a broad and nuanced understanding of contemporary craft, bringing together works that expand tradition through risk, skill and imagination. The selection highlights how craft today moves fluidly between art and making, combining cultural perspectives, technological and pre-technological knowledge, and diverse approaches to material and form.”
“Craft today moves fluidly between art and making.”
A Global Jury and Expert Panel
Jieun Park. Courtesy of Loewe Foundation Craft Prize 2026.
Morten Løbner Espersen. Courtesy of Loewe Foundation Craft Prize 2026.
This edition of the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize marks the first time LOEWE Creative Directors Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez will serve on the jury. They join a distinguished panel including 2025 Prize winner Kunimasa Aoki; architect Minsuk Cho; architect and essayist Frida Escobedo; designer Naoto Fukasawa; Olivier Gabet, Director of Decorative Arts at the Louvre; ceramicist Magdalene Odundo; design critic Deyan Sudjic; Abraham Thomas of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; architect Patricia Urquiola; Pritzker Prize–winning architect Wang Shu; and Anatxu Zabalbeascoa, alongside Chairwoman Sheila Loewe.
The finalists of the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize were selected by an Expert Panel composed of Antonia Boström, Scott Chaseling, Hyeyoung Cho, Michelle Millar Fischer, Sara Flynn, Satoko Fujiwara, Amy Greenspon, Wolfgang Lösche, Ibrahim Mahama, Nifemi Marcus-Bello, Didi NG Wing Yin, and Executive Secretary Anatxu Zabalbeascoa.
The winner will be announced on May 12, 2026, receiving €50,000, with two special mentions awarded €5,000 each.
Bringing the exhibition to Singapore underscores the Prize’s international commitment. At National Gallery Singapore, home to the world’s largest public collection of Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art, the shortlisted works will enter into dialogue not only with one another, but with broader regional histories of making and material intelligence.
In its ninth edition, the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize affirms what contemporary craft increasingly makes clear: that innovation does not abandon tradition—it reworks it, stretches it, and sometimes fractures it open.
Jongjin Park. Courtesy of Loewe Foundation Craft Prize 2026.
Jong In Lee. Courtesy of Loewe Foundation Craft Prize 2026.
