Loewe Just Announced the Short List for Its 2020 Craft Prize

The shortlist for the 2020 Loewe
Craft Prize has been decided, Artnet News can exclusively
reveal. 

The annual competition, begun by
Loewe’s London-born creative director, Jonathan Anderson, in 2016,
was originally conceived to acknowledge the importance of crafts in
today’s increasingly machine-dependent world. 

With a €50,000 purse, the Craft
Prize has become a hallmark for Loewe, which traces its humble
beginnings back to a craft workshop founded in 1846. The winner
will also be honored with a solo exhibition at the Musée
des Arts Décoratifs in Paris over the summer
months. 

“Craft is the essence of Loewe,”
Anderson said in a statement. “As a house, we are about craft in
the purest sense of the word. That is where our modernity lies, and
it will always be relevant.”

The competition saw a 15 percent
increase in applications this year, with an unprecedented total of
2,920 submissions. The candidate pool was also more diverse than
ever, with applicants from 107 countries across six
continents.

The finalists hail from 18
countries, with many choosing to use found or up-cycled materials
for their creations, reflecting the emergence of a universal
concern about the natural world.

According to Loewe, this concern
“is an omnipresent theme” throughout the finalists’ works, which
range from ceramic vessels that allude to geographical phenomena,
to a decorative stoneware object that captures the ebbs and flows
of the ocean’s currents across its sand-like
surface. 

The winner of the competition
will be announced on May 12 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, where
their work will also be unveiled for a solo exhibition. The
winner’s work will be on view through July 21. 

The full short list, in
alphabetical order, is below.

Afsaneh Modiramani
(Iran)

Anthony Marsh (United
States)

Bodil Manz (Denmark)

Carla Garcia Durlan
(Spain)

Darshana Raja (Kenya)

David Corvalán
(Chile)

Despo Sophocleous
(Canada)

Edu Tarín (Germany)

Fanglu Lin (China)

Hyejeong Kim (Republic of
Korea)

Jack Doherty
(Ireland)

Jess Tolbert (United
States)

Jessica Loughlin
(Australia)

Jiyong Lee (United
States)

Joël Andrianomearisoa
(Madagascar)

Kevin Grey (United
Kingdom)

Kohei Ukai (Japan)

Kyeok Kim (Republic of
Korea)

Marc Ricourt (France)

Naama Haneman
(Israel)

Peter Bauhuis
(Germany)

Sukkeun Kang (Republic of
Korea)

Sungho Cho (Republic of
Korea

Sungyoul Park (Republic of
Korea)

Takayuki Sakiyama
(Japan)

Tobias Møhl (Denmark)

Veronika Beckh
(Germany)

Waqas Khan (Pakistan)

Xavier Toubes (Spain)

Yang Gao (China)

The post Loewe Just Announced the Short List for Its 2020
Craft Prize appeared first on artnet News.