The Loewe Foundation has announced Korean ceramicist Jongjin Park as the winner of the 2026 edition of the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize. Park was selected for his piece Strata of Illusion (2025), a partially-collapsed seat-like form crafted from paper and coated in porcelain slip, for which he has received €50,000 ($58,700). His work, alongside the rest of those shortlisted, will be on view in an exhibition at the National Gallery Singapore that opens tomorrow and runs through June 14.
The artist was selected among 30 previously-announced finalists who hail from 20 different countries and regions and work across a wide range of disciplines including ceramics, woodworking, textiles, metal, jewelry, and bookbinding. The jury was made up of art historians, museum curators as well as designers and architects—including Frida Escobedo and Patricia Urquiola—in addition to Loewe’s creative directors, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez.
The jury selected Park’s piece for its depth of craft and innovation. In this piece, the artist compresses thousands of layers of paper that are soaked in colored ceramic slip, and then fired at high temperatures. In the kiln, the paper burns away and what remains is a distorted object that rethinks the confines of the ceramic medium.
The jury also gave special mentions to Spanish designer Álvaro Catalán de Ocón’s work in collaboration with the Ghanaian artisanal collective Baba Tree Master Weavers, as well as Italian jewelry artist Graziano Visintin. Catalán de Ocón partnered with the collective of over 250 artisans to realize Frafra Tapestry (2024), a large-scale communally woven tapestry that uses traditional basketry techniques and elephant grass to fuse ancestral craft with contemporary technology. And Visintin was selected for Collier (2025), two necklaces that feature small cubes made of sheets of gold and adorned with niello, an ancient metalworking technique. They will each receive €5,000 ($5,870).
Previous winners of the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize include Japanese sculptor Kunimasa Aoki, who won in 2025; and Mexican ceramic artist Andrés Anza, who was awarded in 2024.
‘It has been a privilege to join the jury of the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize,” shared McCollough and Hernandez in a press statement. “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.”
