When you think of craft, what comes to mind? A wise elder, carefully operating a century-old shuttle loom to fashion raw denim from handpicked cotton; or maybe a gangly, bespectacled youth hunched over a keyboard, furiously typing code into a software program?
If we’re being honest, there is very little that cannot be a craft—the most seemingly mundane work can count if the practitioner approaches it with authenticity and spirit. That being said, while the creative barrier of entry can be low, the ceiling is stratospheric—the dizzying heights of which the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize was purpose-built to explore.
Founded in 2016 by Northern Irish fashion designer Jonathan Anderson, the prize is a gauntlet for the world’s artists to pick up in the pursuit of handwrought beauty. Its vision? “To celebrate and support working artists whose talent, vision and will to innovate promise to set a new standard for the future.”
The prize landed on Singapore’s shores earlier this week. Out of 5,100 submissions, thirty finalists were chosen by a panel of expert judges in Madrid, their work now on display at National Gallery Singapore through 14 June. Step one foot into the exhibition space, and it becomes clear why this prize is special. It is, simply put, a love letter to the pinnacle of craft.
What’s the difference between art and craft, you ask? Bookbinder Adelene Koh, one of the prize’s finalists—and Singapore’s only representative at the exhibition—observes: “Art tends to be more conceptual. It’s about bringing forth an idea or a message. Craft does the same, but as craftspeople we think with our hands, so we understand material and the traditional techniques that help transform that material into a piece of art.”
The artists that heeded Loewe’s call lean on a variety of mediums to channel their creativity. Finalist Rayah Wauters of Belgium employs custom tools to painstakingly shave layers of Belgian poplar timber with microscopic precision. To her, “it’s like escaping to a new world, an empty space where I’m constantly thinking about repetition and movement.” British artist Susan Halls’s figurative ceramic work pursues “a focus on composition, design and architectural elements” to construct a towering latticework of anonymous animals stacked atop one another. And Nan Wei of China marries leather and lacquer, “showcasing ancient techniques utilised to create and immortalise new expressions in art.”
Pottery and metalworking; glass-blowing and woodworking; it’s all fair game. However, entry is not for the faint of heart, requiring contestants to submit entirely new, handmade works that bridge the gap between tradition and innovation. The very act of participation bears profound merit. Indeed, all art takes courage, and the courage to offer your creativity to be scrutinised by a panel of experts working for one of fashion’s most iconic brands? That demands nothing short of wholehearted respect.
To see for yourself, peruse a snapshot of ten of this year’s Loewe Foundation Craft Prize finalists and their artworks; including winner Jongjin Park of South Korea, as well as special mentions Graziano Visintin of Italy and a collaboration between eight baba tree weavers from Ghana and Spaniard Álvaro Catalánde Ocón.
1 / 10
'Endless' (2025) by Adelene Koh
Paper, DMC embroidery threads and aluminium wire
Adelene Koh is a Singaporean book artist, binder and conservator based in Taiwan. Her view of books approaches the medium as more than mere repository of knowledge, but artistic objects in their own right capable of embodying time, curiosity and transformation. Koh’s entry, ‘Endless’, is an infinitely looping endband—the cylindrical band tying the top and bottom of a book’s spine—accented by a rainbow of colours, all brought together using English sewing techniques from the 18th and 19th centuries.
2 / 10
'Scala', comprised of pieces 3-5 (2025) by Gjertrud Hals
Cotton and linen thread and resin
Gjertrud Hals is a Norwegian artist whose work incorporates natural and found materials, touching on themes across history, philosophy, religion and Norse mythology. Through three knitted vessels, she tells a tale inspired by the best known poem of the ancient Norse Edda, Völuspá, brought to stark relief in the present with dynamic, yet delicate flair.
3 / 10
'Rhythm in Grid' (2025) by Chia-Chen Hsieh
Bamboo, urushi and dye
Chia-Chen Hsieh is a Taiwanese artist and teacher. She specialises in bamboo weaving, but also lectures at various residencies and creative hubs, as well as at her own studio. Hsieh’s construct, ‘Rhythm in Grid’, is a mesmerising, undulating exercise in manufactured tension and natural harmony, a riveting dialogue between constructed order and organic life.
4 / 10
'Seed of Circulation' (2025) by Jieun Park
Oxidised sterling silver and linen thread
Jieun Park is a South Korean artist and teacher, whose medium of metal spans metal craft and jewellery, recently expanding to objects and installations. Her entry for the prize consists of bundles of immaculately assembled ‘seeds’—constructed by cutting thousands of 9mm circles out of sterling silver sheets, hand-hammering them into form and connecting them using thread and needle.
5 / 10
'Knot-Loving' (2025) by Nan Wei
Lacquer, cow leather and linen
Nan Wei is a Chinese artist, with much of her practice shaped by a lengthy tenure in Japan, where she discovered both lacquer art and woodworking. Her work is a bridge between past and future, moulding natural leather into shape using traditional Japanese techniques, then layering them in ash powder and securing the ensemble with lacquer to indefinitely extend the base material’s lifespan.
6 / 10
'A Turn Toward Possibility' (2025) by Rayah Wauters
Belgian poplar wood and black ink
Rayah Wauters is a Belgian artist focused on woodturning, and the founder of Timbr.app—a platform that promotes locally harvested wood amongst a community of like-minded creatives. Her partner, an arborist, serves as her sole supply of harvested wood. Wauters’s entry makes use of Belgian poplar wood to cast a spellbinding vision of infinitesimal detail, with each strand of wooden fibre turned, combed to release knots and dipped in black ink.
7 / 10
'Edifice' (2025) by Susan Halls
Glazed ceramic and stoneware
Susan Halls is a British artist who specialises in exploring new forms of figurative ceramics, the bulk of her work inspired by the animal kingdom. For ‘Edifice’, Halls eschewed her typical approach to ceramics, which involves creating singular forms of animals, in favour of assembling an almost sinister latticework of near formless creatures in a bid to turn one’s eye to the nature of collective consciousness.
8 / 10
'Frafra Tapestry' (2024) by Baba Tree master weavers and Álvaro Catalán de Ocón
Natural and black-dyed elephant grass
Spaniard Álvaro Catalán de Ocón’s interpretation of northern Ghanaian architecture was brought to life as ‘Frafra Tapestry’, first by taking aerial photography of ancestral family compounds, then employing a local artisan to trace the bird’s-eye view, and finally giving the blueprint to eight master weavers from Bolgatanga, Ghana—Mary Anaba, Charity Aveamah Atuah, Christiana Anaba Akolpoka, Asakiloro Aduko, Mary Ayinbogra, Teni Ayine, Subolo Ayine and Punka Joe.
9 / 10
'Collier', comprised of pieces 1 and 2 (2025) by Graziano Visintin
Gold and niello
Graziano Visintin is an Italian jewellery artist and teacher who has run workshops and lectured around the world, including London, Geneva and Beijing. He used melting and moulding techniques from ancient Egypt to fashion metal—decorated with niello, melted with sulphur and layered with sheets of gold—in order to create his ‘Collier’ series of necklaces.
SPECIAL MENTION
10 / 10
'Strata of Illusion' (2025) by Jongjin Park
Porcelain, paper, stain and glaze
Jongjin Park is a South Korean artist and teacher. His ceramics expertise and interest in interdisciplinary art has allowed him to collaborate with luxury houses, fashion brands and automotive companies. Park’s winning entry is a spirited amalgamation of paper and porcelain infused with hand-mixed pigments—folded, stacked and compacted by hand before firing into solid shape in a kiln.
WINNER
The Loewe Foundation Craft Prize 2026 exhibition will be open to the public at the National Gallery Singapore from now till 14 June 2026.
