The Loewe Foundation has officially unveiled the shortlist for the 2026 edition of its Craft Prize, a closely watched annual award recognizing excellence in fine craft. Thirty finalists—selected from more than 5,100 submissions spanning 133 countries and regions—have been chosen for works that treat craft not as a fixed discipline, but as a totem of evolving tension in a changing world: between balance and instability, order and rupture, tradition and experimentation.
On May 12, the winner will be revealed at a ceremony in Singapore and awarded €50,000; two special mentions will earn €5,000 each. An exhibition of the finalists’ work will be presented at the National Gallery Singapore, home to a global collection of Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art.
“Bringing this exhibition to Singapore reflects the global dialogue at the heart of the prize and our ongoing commitment to supporting artists at pivotal moments in their careers,” says Loewe Foundation President Sheila Loewe.
Loewe’s new creative directors, Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez, will sit on the prize’s jury for the first time. The nominated practices includes a wide swath of material experimentation in ceramics, woodwork, textiles, furniture, bookbinding, glass, metal, jewelry, and lacquer. In selecting the nominees, the judges sought to identify the most outstanding works in terms of their technical accomplishment, skill, innovation, and artistic vision.
The finalists span 19 countries and regions, ranging from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden to Korea, China, and Japan to Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Other nominees hail from the U.K., Brazil, Haiti, and the U.S. From the lacquered steel of sculptor Jobe Burns’s contribution and the bulbous, sterling silver teardrops of artist Jieun Park, to the narrative tapestries of weaver Fadekemi Ogunsanya and the technicolor, otherworldly statuettes of artist Coco Sung, Loewe has looked to practices that surprise, delight, and push their mediums forward with gusto.
Looking to immerse yourself further into the world of this year’s awards? Loewe has also launched “The Room“—an online space for the artists in this year’s nomination pool to showcase their work for global audiences.
For the full list of 2026 nominees, see below:
Baba Tree Master Weavers × Álvaro Catalán de Ocón (Spain), Jobe Burns (United Kingdom), Soohyun Chou (South Korea), Morten Løbner Espersen (Denmark), Liam Fleming (Australia), Oskar Gustafsson (Sweden), Susan Halls (United Kingdom), Gjertrud Hals (Norway), Chia-Chen Hsieh (Taiwan), Adelene Koh (Singapore), Maria Koshenkova (Denmark), Jong In Lee (South Korea), Somyeong Lee (South Korea), Misako Nakahira (Japan), Fadekemi Ogunsanya (Nigeria), Jieun Park (South Korea), Jongjin Park (South Korea), Rafael Pérez Fernández (Spain), Dorothea Prühl (Germany), Kristie Rea (Australia), Vivi Rosa (Brazil), Hervé Sabin (Haiti), Xanthe Somers (Zimbabwe), Coco Sung (Republic of Korea), Nobuyuki Tanaka (Japan), Graziano Visintin (Italy), Rayah Wauters (Belgium), Nan Wei (China), Jane Yang-D’Haene (United States of America), and Ayano Yoshizumi (Japan).
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