Loewe Craft Prize Announced
27 May 2021
The €50,000 Loewe Craft Prize for 2021 hs been awarded to Fanglu Lin, an artist and designer educated in China, Germany, and Japan. Lin’s winning piece SHE is a 196-foot knotted and knitted textile work, the culmination of years of research conducted with the women of the Bai minority in China’s Yunnan province. Chilean artist David Corvalán has been honored for his work Desértico II, composed of hundreds of individual copper wires, as is Japanese artist Takayuki Sakiyama for his stone piece Chōtō-Listening to the Waves.
We were of course delighted to see Northern Irish potter Jack Doherty take his place amongst the 30 finalists with his piece Guardian Vessel.
While the work of the Loewe Foundation stretches round the world, it was Jonathan Anderson, originally from Magherafelt, and now creative director at Loewe who set up the Loewe Craft Prize in 2016 to celebrate and support the work of young artists and makers innovating everything from ceramics and jewellery, to textiles and metalwork. The prize has now evolved into a renowned cultural brand and Loewe has now launched The Room, an online platform which showcases the works of everyone who has been shortlisted on the Craft Prize. In Jonathan’s own words – ‘A prize cannot just be a prize and then we move on. It is about the support mechanism.’ We like Jonathan’s long term approach and his commitment to supporting artists and craft – and we recommend visiting The Room for its fantastic artworks and informative artist profiles.