Loewe Foundation Craft Prize 2024: Andrés Anza takes home the main reward

Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, now in its seventh edition, has just announced the winners of the 2024 selection. 

And the winner is… Andrés Anza! The Mexican artist got the main prize for his work “I only know what I have seen”, 2023. This life-size ceramic sculpture is both figurative and abstract and is intricately constructed from thousands of individual ceramic protrusions with tiny spikes. The totemic artwork is assembled with architectural precision from five distant puzzle pieces, invisible to the eye. According to the jury, this masterpiece “defies time and cultural context, drawing upon ancient, archaeological forms but also tracing a post-digital aesthetic that sees ceramics absorbing the most defining influences of our time.” During the ceremony held in Paris at Palais de Tokyo, Anza was presented the award by actress and Loewe ambassador Aubrey Plaza, best known for her role in “White Lotus”. The winner will receive a grant of EUR 50,000.

The selection was made from 3900 submissions and 30 preselected candidates by an international jury composed of Loewe Creative Director Jonathan W. Anderson and 12 friends, leading voices from the field of design, architecture, journalism, criticism and museum curatorship, including Loewe Foundation president Sheila Loewe, ceramist Magdalene Odundo, architect Minsuk Cho, journalist Anatxu Zabalbeascoa, last year’s winner Eriko Inazaki, and curators Olivier Gabet and Abraham Thomas. 

Also, for the first time since the prize’s inception in 2016, the jury had a tough time deciding who would be the winner - so after some heated discussions, they decided to give an extra three mentions to Miki Asi from Japan for her work “Still Life”, 2023, Emmanuel Boos from France for his work “Coffee Table ‘Comme un Lego”, 2023, and Heechan Kim from South Korea for his work “16”, 2023.

Launched in 2016 and conceived by Jonathan W. Anderson, the international annual Loewe Foundation Craft Prize celebrates newness, excellence and artistic merit in modern craftsmanship and spans ceramics, jewellery, textiles, woodwork, glass, metalwork, furniture, papercraft and lacquer. Any professional artisan aged above 18 can apply, with the sole requirement that the submitted work combines an innovative application of the craft with an original artistic concept. 

All of the 30 shortlisted works will be on view in Palais de Tokyo in Paris until 9 June. The exhibition is also available online via this link https://craftprizeexhibition.loewe.com/.

Text: Lidia Ageeva