Loewe Reveals Craft Prize Finalists for 2026
Each year, the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize spotlights the evolving language of making. For 2026, thirty finalists will present their work at the National Gallery Singapore from 13 May to 14 June. Among ceramics, lacquer and furniture, textiles stand out as a field where tradition and contemporary intervention meet, and where material process carries cultural memory as much as formal ambition. Here, we take a closer look at the finalists through a textiles-focused lens.
Frafra Tapestry #2’, Baba Tree Master Weavers × Álvaro Catalán de Ocón
In ‘Frafra Tapestry #2’, Baba Tree Master Weavers × Álvaro Catalán de Ocón translate drone imagery of circular adobe housing in Ghana’s Gurunsi region into woven form. Architectural plans produced in Madrid are reinterpreted in Ghana using basketry techniques in natural and black-dyed elephant grass. Dark bands define walls, lighter spaces suggest courtyards, later animated with improvised pattern. The tapestry becomes a collective document of place, shaped by many hands and grounded in architectural tradition.
Gjertrud Hals, Scala, 3-5
Norwegian artist Gjertrud Hals transforms knitting into structure with ‘Scala’ (3–5). Cotton and linen threads are hand-knitted, dyed and fixed in resin over moulds, creating tall vessels whose graduated colour recalls shifting daylight. Loop and pigment combine in forms that draw on Nordic cosmology while asserting the architectural potential of thread and the sculptural capacity of repetitive stitch.
Adelene Koh, Endless.
With ‘Endless’, Adelene Koh enlarges the hidden endband of a book into a circular sculpture. Using historic English sewing techniques, she binds folded pages around an aluminium core, allowing repetition and colour to determine form. Bookbinding is reframed as spatial practice, where stitch becomes framework and a structural detail assumes centre stage.
Misako Nakahira, Interaction #YB
In ‘Interaction #YB’, Misako Nakahira unsettles the logic of the stripe. Blue and yellow wool wefts move across a cotton warp, overlapping to create subtle shifts in depth and density. The folded surface and visible reverse encourage multiple orientations, positioning tapestry between image and object while foregrounding the tactile qualities of woven cloth.
Fadekemi Ogunsanya, We Are Not Lying, Your Language is Not Enough
Narrative is central to Fadekemi Ogunsanya’s quilt, ‘We Are Not Lying, Your Language is Not Enough’. Using Adire Eleko resist-dyeing and Yoruba script, and working with indigo-dyed cloth from Kano, she layers embroidery and beading over symbolic motifs. The padded surface carries text, memory and cultural knowledge within its structure, extending a lineage of communication through cloth.
Jongjin Park, Strata of Illusion
Material layering also connects to Jongjin Park’s porcelain ‘Strata of Illusion’, formed from compressed, slip-coated paper, and Nan Wei’s lacquered leather work ‘Knot-Loving’, built through successive applications of lacquer and linen. Both echo textiles’ concerns with tension, compression and surface, demonstrating how ideas rooted in fibre resonate across disciplines.
If you would like to explore further perspectives from the Loewe Foundation, its ‘Crafts in Conversation’ series presents filmed discussions on modern craft at the Futuro House, hosted by Central Saint Martins, featuring members of the Jury and Expert Panel reflecting on the meaning behind making.
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Further Information:
Loewe Foundation 2026 Craft Prize
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Image Credits:
Lead: Fadekemi Ogunsanya, We Are Not Lying, Your Language is Not Enough. (Detail).
All images courtesy of Loewe Foundation.