Design Museum exhibition to show “importance of craft in today’s culture”

The 30 shortlisted designs for this year’s Loewe Craft Prize will go on display at the museum this May, and the overall winner will be awarded €50,000.

Ryuhei Sako

Update 4 May 2018: Jennifer Lee has been chosen as the winner of the Loewe Craft Prize 2018. The Scottish ceramicist beat 29 other finalists to take the top prize, and has been given a cash prize of €50,000 (£43,700). All of the shortlisted designs are on display at the Design Museum until 17 June 2018. Scroll down to see new images of the exhibition.


The Design Museum is set to host an exhibition of shortlisted works from this year’s Loewe Craft Prize.

The annual competition was established by the Loewe Foundation in 2016, and is headed up by the fashion house’s creative director Jonathan Anderson. It aims to highlight the “importance of craft in today’s culture”, says Loewe, as well as recognise the designers and makers behind it.

The shortlist features 30 designs from 18 different countries, and spans disciplines including ceramics, jewellery, textiles, woodwork, glass, metalwork, furniture, papercraft and lacquer.

Shortlisted designs have been selected by a judging panel of craftspeople including ceramics artist Sara Flynn, glass artist Yoshiaki Kojiro, and head of architecture at the Loewe Foundation, Paula Aza.

Richard McVetis

Anatxu Zabalbeascoa, executive secretary of the Loewe Craft Prize judging panel, says: “Our chosen works reflect an almost alchemical manipulation of each medium’s possibilities and reward those who have mastered traditional skills in order to transform them for the contemporary age.”

The winning entry will be chosen from the 30-strong shortlist by a jury of 10 people from the worlds of design, architecture and journalism, including last year’s winner Ernst Gamperl and Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic.

The competition winner will be announced on 3 May, and will receive a €50,000 (£43,700) cash prize.

Sudjic will also be in conversation with Anderson on 11 May discussing “The New Ethics of Craft”, as part of a series of talks organised by the Loewe Foundation during London Craft Week.


The Loewe Craft Prize 2018 Exhibition runs from 4 May – 17 June 2018 at the Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High Street, Kensington, London W8 6AG. Entry is free. For more info, head here.

Mercedes Vicente
Sara Gackowska
Jennifer Lee
Aneta Regel
Arko
Steffen Dam

New images:

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  • Matt Davis April 26, 2018 at 8:41 am

    We couldn’t agree more — craft couldn’t be more relevant in modern-day culture. We recently worked on a project to emphasise this fact for the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair in the UK.

    There’s a case study here if anyone would like to learn more:

    https://squad.co/work/great-northern-contemporary-craft-fair/

    : )

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