Since its launch in 2016, the annual Loewe Foundation Craft Prize has honored makers from across the globe whose work exemplifies excellence and innovation in craft. Loewe, one of the world’s premier luxury fashion brands, was founded in Madrid in 1846 as a collective leather workshop. The Craft Prize was established as a tribute to these handcrafted beginnings.
This February, the Loewe Foundation announced the shortlist for the 2026 edition of the Craft Prize. Selected from a pool of more than 5,100 submissions, the 30 finalists represent 19 countries, with entries in a range of media that includes ceramics, wood, textiles, furniture, bookbinding, glass, metal, jewelry, and lacquer. The finalists’ works will be exhibited at the National Gallery Singapore from May 13 to June 14. The winner and two special mentions will be announced on May 12, and the winner will receive €50,000.
The shortlist includes “works that expand tradition through risk, skill, and imagination,” says Anatxu Zabalbeascoa, executive secretary of the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize Expert Panel.
Representing the United States among the finalists is Brooklyn-based Jane Yang-D’Haene, a ceramic artist whose work is deeply tied to her Korean heritage. “Being the only artist from the United States on the shortlist is deeply meaningful, particularly as an immigrant who came to this country at 16 without language or community,” she says.
The opportunity to exhibit at National Gallery Singapore also holds special resonance for Yang-D’Haene. “Singapore sits at a cultural intersection between East and West, much like my work, which merges the tradition of the Korean moon jar with painterly abstraction,” she says.
Describing the untitled, handbuilt vessel she submitted for the Craft Prize, she says, “Carved lines and repeated oval motifs record time and gesture, while layered glazes pool and drip across the surface. Celadon erupts near the shoulder, blue glazes descend in vertical traces, and earthy greens punctuate the white ground. The piece balances quiet form with a surface marked by rupture and resilience, holding vulnerability and strength within a single body.”
Jane Yang-D'Haene's untitled submission to the 2026 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize content pairs the traditional Korean moon jar form with painterly abstraction.
