The Loewe Foundation has announced the shortlist of finalists for its 2026 Craft Prize. They have selected 30 artists from 133 countries, whose works will be shown in an exhibition at the National Gallery Singapore from May 13th through June 14th. On May 12th, the winner, along with two special mentions, will be announced on May 12th. The winner will be awarded €50,000 ($58,840), while the two special mentions will each receive €5000 ($5,880).
The 30 finalists were selected from among 5,100 submissions by a panel of experts including artist and former Craft Prize finalist Sara Flynn; Antonia Boström, the Victoria and Albert Museum’s former director of collections, and Amy Greenspon, an independent curator and Loewe’s art advisor. The selected artists work across a diverse range of media including ceramics, woodworking, textiles, furniture, book binding, glass, metal, jewelry, and lacquer. Their works explore the tension between balance and chaos, make references to the natural world, and recontextualize cultural traditions.
Loewe’s new creative directors, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, will sit on the jury for the first time. In selecting the winner and two special mentions, they will be joined by luminaries from across design, journalism, institutions, and architecture. These include 2025 Craft Prize winner Kunimasa Aoki, essayist and architect Frida Escobedo, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s curator of modern architecture, design, and decorative arts, Abraham Thomas.
“The Craft Prize continues to reveal the extraordinary diversity and ambition of contemporary craft,” said Sheila Loewe, the president of the Loewe Foundation. “The works shortlisted for the 2026 edition demonstrate how deeply rooted traditions can be reimagined through innovation, skill and imagination. 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.”
There are several artists on the list who work primarily with ceramics, including Korea’s Jongjin Park, Denmark’s Morten Løbner Espersen, and the London-based, Zimbabwe-born Xanthe Somers. Those working with glass include Japan’s Ayano Yoshizumi, Kirstie Rea from Australia, Denmark-based Maria Koshenkova. Other artists selected include the fiber artist Gjertrud Hals, lacquer artist Nan Wei, and book artist and bookbinder Adelene Koh. The full list of finalists can be found below.
- Baba Tree Master Weavers × Álvaro Catalán de Ocón
- Jobe Burns
- Soohyun Chou
- Morten Løbner Espersen
- Liam Fleming
- Oskar Gustafsson
- Susan Halls
- Gjertrud Hals
- Chia-Chen Hsieh
- Adelene Koh
- Maria Koshenkova
- Jong In Lee
- Somyeong Lee
- Misako Nakahira
- Fadekemi Ogunsanya
- Jieun Park
- Jongjin Park
- Rafael Pérez Fernández
- Dorothea Prühl
- Kirstie Rea
- Vivi Rosa
- Hervé Sabin
- Xanthe Somers
- Coco Sung
- Nobuyuki Tanaka
- Graziano Visintin
- Rayah Wauters
- Nan Wei
- Jane Yang-D’Haene
- Ayano Yoshizumi
