Kunimasa Aoki Wins 2025 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize
It was a night of stars in Madrid, as the film director Pedro Almodóvar presented this year’s award to a Japanese auteur
The Loewe Foundation’s Craft Prize returned to its home city of Madrid for its eighth edition, so it was only right that one of the city’s cultural superstars should be on hand to present the prize. In a pale olive shirt, his hair now quite white, the internationally acclaimed film director Pedro Almodóvar took to the stage to announce the winner.
The €50,000 prize went to Kunimasa Aoki, a Japanese ceramist who embraces one of Japan’s most ancient techniques in his exquisite work. “I stack up very thin coils of clay,” explained Aoki through an interpreter, “but then I add my own innovation, which is to apply pressure to the clay.” The result is an undulating form–somewhere between the topography of a landscape or the rippling form of an elephant hide–that is full of intricate detail.
Viewing the exhibition of the 30 shortlisted artists at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum before the presentation, Almodóvar declared himself overwhelmed by the beauty and innovation of all the entries. He later advised the crowd, which included actors Lesley Manville and Murray Bartlett (both have appeared in recent Loewe campaigns) to take a lesson from these craftspeople: to slow down and look more closely at the world around us.
Last year’s winner, the Mexican ceramist Andres Anza, had been part of the jury that made the decision. “It was life-changing,” said Anza of his win. “I was invited to take part in so many exhibitions once I’d won, and the waiting list for my work just grew and grew.” He is planning to take the rest of the year more calmly. “Now there’s a new winner, I feel I can relax,” he said.
The Mexican architect Frida Escabedo, who was also a jury member for the first time, described winning the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize as an equivalent to her own experience of being selected to design the Serpentine Pavillion in London in 2018. “It opened up the whole world to me. I had no idea the effect it would have,” said Escobedo. She is currently working on a new wing for the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Pompidou Centre in Paris.
“I call the jury the heroes of the Prize,” said Sheila Loewe, President of the Loewe Foundation. “The process starts with 4,000 entries, and they have to choose 30,” she continued. “But there are more than 30 that deserve to be considered, so it’s really hard. We don’t look at the age or the country of the artists, but this year there are 60 percent women and the age range is 25 to 85.” The spread of nationalities is also impressive, with contenders from 18 countries and every continent represented.
A special mention went to Nifemi Marcus-Bello from Nigeria, presented with his accolade by Spanish designer and Galerie Creative Mind Patricia Urquiola. Marcus-Bello’s work–a silver-hued bench and bowl in cast aluminum–had been shown at Design Miami in 2023, and subsequently acquired by LACMA, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Brooklyn Museum. “It’s about the way we recycle in Nigeria,” explained Marcus-Bello, whose piece is both a work of functional furniture and compelling sculpture. “It wasn’t my favorite design until I put it in my own home in Lagos, and then I found it completely changes the space around it. I completely fell in love with it and now I can’t imagine living without it.”
Meg Ryan–apparently a “craft enthusiast”, according to her introduction–was another surprise guest. She also took to the stage to give a special mention to Studio Sumakshi Singh from India. Singh’s work imagines a life-size column from 12th Century Delhi, but translated into a textile woven and embroidered in copper thread. “Making work like this is about patience, and working together, sitting in silence,” said Singh. “It’s very healing.”
Other standout works included the British ceramist Philip Eglin, who already has a strong following for his large-scale figurative sculptures and scrawled political slogans. He had played a little safer here, presenting a tall vessel made of four slabs of clay decorated with coral-colored strokes. “I was inspired by Robert Rauschenberg’s tyre pieces he says,” referring to the process which involves painting onto plaster, then transferring the design to the clay slab. “I don’t really see myself as a craftsperson,” he continued. “I have a great knowledge of clay, and respect its historic importance, but for me it’s a vehicle for ideas.”
Nearby in the exhibition, an ethereal white chair by Jungin Lee turned out to be made of 130 layers of Korean Hanji paper. The result had the visual softness of draped fabric. “I wanted to make something that created no waste,” said Lee, 40, who lives in Seoul, but studied in London at the Royal College of Art. “And this is the result. It looks delicate but you can sit on it–it’s about 15mm thick–and I like the idea that it will get marked and worn over time,” she said. “Also the paper is made from the mulberry tree, so it’s very close to nature.”
Nature and narratives ran through all the selections. Laura Mays’s small wooden cabinet had been made from salvaged redwood, logged in the late 19th century, and available near her studio in northern California. Its pendulous doors were intricately carved into drips which descended below its frame. Margaret Rarru Garrawurra–an 85-year-old from Australia–had used an ancient Aboriginal technique to weave a bag from natural fibers called gunga and balgurr.
“It’s so different from how live our lives–driven by speed and stress,” said Sheila Loewe. “With craft practice, the pace changes, and you are looking at people who deeply understand the material they use and how to communicate with it. These are people who think with their hands. There are stories behind every piece of work,” she said, before adding: “I feel better thanks to my connection to this world and this work.”