Korean ceramicist Jongjin Park will take home €50,000.
Loewe has named Korean ceramicist Jongjin Park the winner of the 2026 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize for his work “Strata of Illusion,” a seat-like sculpture built from thousands of layered paper sheets coated in colored porcelain slip. In the kiln, the paper burns away and the structure slumps under heat and gravity—a process the jury praised for its poetry and “honest imperfection.” Park, a professor at Seoul Women’s University, takes home €50,000; special mentions, each receiving €5,000, went to Italian jeweler Graziano Visintin for a pair of niello-and-gold necklaces, and to the Baba Tree Master Weavers in collaboration with Spanish designer Álvaro Catalán de Ocón for “Frafra Tapestry,” a large-scale woven document of a Ghanaian village.
Established by the Loewe Foundation in 2016 as a nod to the house’s 1846 origins as a collective craft workshop, the annual prize celebrates excellence, artistic merit, and innovation in modern craft. This year drew more than 5,100 submissions from 133 countries. Loewe creative directors Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, who joined the jury, called the shortlist “a powerful testament to the enduring possibilities of making.” All 30 finalists will be exhibited at National Gallery Singapore from May 13 through June 14.
From left: Alvaro Catalan de Ocon, Graziano Visitin, Jongjin Park
