29 finalists of the Loewe Craft Prize 2019 announced

Loewe has just revealed the 29 artists shortlisted for the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize 2019. It’s the third edition of the global competition that was conceived by creative director and keen craft collector Jonathan Anderson in 2016 to promote and honour contemporary craftmanship from around the globe in all its myriad forms.

This year, over 2,500 submissions from over 100 countries (a YOY increase of 44 per cent) were reviewed by a panel of nine experts, who convened in Madrid for two days to ‘identify the most outstanding works in terms of techinical accomplishment, innovation and artistic vision’. As always the finalists hail from far reaches of the globe, although there are a notable quota of 10 representing Japan, eight are UK-based and there are four from Korea.

A jury composed of 11 leading figures from the world of design, architecture, journalism, criticism, and museum curatorship, including Anderson and also Jennifer Lee, winner of last year's prize, will select the winner from the shortlist.

Each year the announcement of the winner takes place in a different city. Last year’s ceremony took place at London’s Design Museum and for the inaugural year the announcement and exhibition took place in Loewe's home city of Madrid. This year the jury will travel to Tokyo and the prize of 50,000 euros will be presented to the winner on 25 June at the opening of the Loewe Craft Prize 2019 exhibition, which is being held at Isamu Noguchi’s indoor stone garden ‘Heaven’ at the Sogetsu Kaikan in Tokyo – a suitably tranquil setting in which to enjoy the rich diversity of hand-hewn works on display.

INFORMATION

For more information visit the Loewe Craft Prize website