Chinese artist Fanglu Lin has won the Loewe

Lin’s artwork, ‘SHE’ (2016), spotlighting the sewing tradition of the women from the Bai minority ethnic group from the province of Yunnan in China, earned the artist first prize and a €50,000 purse, wowing the jury for its “monumental scale and striking workmanship.”

The competition’s jury also awarded two special mentions, to Chilean sculptor David Corvalán, for his ‘Desértico II’ (2019), and to Japanese ceramic artist Takayuki Sakiyama, for ‘Chōtō Listening to the Waves’ (2019).

The Craft Prize’s fourth edition, initially scheduled in 2020 and then cancelled, recognised these three artists among 30 finalists from 18 countries, selected by a jury comprising top names from the fields of design, architecture, fashion, journalism, criticism and art, notable among them Olivier Gabet, director of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, and Genta Ishizuka, winner of the Loewe Foundation’s Craft Prize 2019.

The Craft Prize exhibition will not be staged as planned at the Paris Museum of Decorative Arts, owing to the restrictions imposed by the fight against the pandemic, and will instead be featured on the Loewe Foundation’s The Room, a website exhibiting the work of all the prize’s 115 finalists ever since its inception in 2016. The artworks on show are made out of a variety of materials, from textiles to ceramic, porcelain, wood, copper, resin, metal, paper, glass and lacquer.

The site showcases the digital technology used to navigate in 3D both the Parisian museum’s hall and the artworks selected. The latter can be viewed in 360º close-up from any smartphone, making The Room the first public database dedicated to contemporary craftsmanship, where artists can upload their own content and images, as well as their contact dates and photo galleries.