Loewe Craft Prize 2021 winner Fanglu Lin’s work “She.” Courtesy Loewe
The annual Loewe craft prize announces its winner today. Chinese Fanglu Lin (b. 1989) was chosen as the winning entry with her work, She (2016). The release announced, “The work astonished the jury with its monumental scale and breathtaking skill.” Featured above, the work is influenced by the thousand-year-old sewing methods of women of Bai Minority in Yunnan province, China.
Loewe Craft Prize special mention Takayuki Sakiyama Chōtō “Listening to the Waves”. Courtesy Loewe
The prize, founded in 2016, exists to honor craft from around the world. This year’s edition sees the launch of The Room, a digital platform exceptionally featuring the work of all 115 finalists since the Prize’s inception. Aiming to incite Arab creatives to consider applying for the prize in the future, creative director Jonathan Anderson tells Vogue Arabia, “The Craft Prize is getting bigger and bigger bit by bit, and we’re getting more and more exposure and more and more applicants. I think my biggest thing to say is that we would like more people to apply and not be scared of the prize. I think it’s important to apply. We have some parts of the world where we have huge amounts of applications, some parts where we have none, and some parts where we have a just few. I think it’s about word of mouth; this is a globally open prize. It’s about word of mouth and getting people to encourage one another to apply for the prize.”
While Paris has recently reopened its doors to museums and other cultural venues, many visitors to the City of Light who are still unable to travel can view the Musée des Arts Décoratifs exhibition virtually via The Room. “Obviously this year is unprecedented,” comments Anderson. “We have done everything we can to physically show these pieces as a curated show, and to be able to get people to navigate them. We do encourage people globally to go to craft galleries and museums to be able to see pieces by certain artists. Ultimately, we are grappling with the idea of tactility, which is incredibly difficult in the digital world. The Craft Prize’s team has done everything in their power to make sure this experience is as interactive as possible, to make you feel like you’re in the Musée des Art Décoratifs.”
Explore the digital exhibition and The Room on Craftprize2021.
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