Jongjin Park wins Loewe Craft Prize with steel basket

May 12, Singapore National Gallery. Jongjin Park's name crossed the wire just after noon, local time. The Seoul-based artist won the Loewe Craft Prize 2026 for a woven steel basket titled Karma 230503. Three years to complete. The judges cited "technical mastery and conceptual rigor." Translation: the thing is built perfectly and means something.

The basket measures 42 cm in diameter, woven from steel wire in a pattern Park calls "traditional Korean technique applied to industrial material." The judges' panel included architect Bijoy Jain, curator Glenn Adamson, and Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson. Nine finalists were shortlisted from 2,800 submissions across 109 countries. Park's basket was the only steel piece in the final lineup.

Park studied metalwork at Seoul National University, then spent a decade working in architectural steel fabrication before returning to his own practice in 2019. The shift shows. The basket has the finish of a structural beam and the weight of furniture. It sits on a plinth, not on a shelf. The judges' statement described it as "a meditation on permanence in an age of disposability." That reads like jury-speak, but the basket backs it up.

The prize comes with €50,000 and a commission for Loewe's foundation collection. Park's basket joins previous winners including Genta Ishizuka's lacquerware and Ernst Gamperl's spalted beech bowl. The foundation has been running the prize since 2016, always at a different city. Last year was Tokyo. This year Singapore. Next year's venue hasn't been announced.

Park's basket will travel to the Loewe Foundation's permanent collection in Madrid, then tour to Seoul, Paris, and New York through 2027. The shortlist exhibition opens at Singapore National Gallery through June 30. Free entry, which matters for a craft prize trying to reach beyond the usual donor circuit.