LOEWE FOUNDATION announces the 30 artists shortlisted for the 2024 edition of the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize. The finalists’ works will be on display at Palais de Tokyo in Paris from 15 May until 9 June 2024.
Image courtesy of Loewe Foundation.
The LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize aims to recognize and assist foreign artisans who exhibit remarkable ability to produce objects of exceptional aesthetic value, regardless of age (over 18) or gender. By identifying work that reinterprets existing knowledge to make it relevant today while reflecting its maker’s personal language and distinct hand, the LOEWE FOUNDATION aims to highlight the continuing contribution of craft to the culture of our time.
From over 3,900 submissions by artisans representing 124 countries and regions, the finalists, representing 16 countries and regions, work across a range of mediums including ceramics, woodwork, textiles, furniture, paper, basketry, glass, metal, jewellery, lacquer and leather. Amongst the 30 finalists for the seventh edition of the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize, Nigerian artist Ozioma Onuzulike, Cape-town based Congolese artist Patrick Bongoy and Malian artist Ange Dakouo make an appearance. Their creations will be on display at the Foundations 2024 Craft Prize exhibition at Palais de Tokyo in Paris from 15 May to 9 June 2024.
PATRICK BONGOY
Image courtesy of Loewe Foundation.
Patrick Bongoy was born, 1980 in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts. He currently lives and works in Cape Town. The textured surface of his works are the result of a painstaking process of cutting and weaving together strips of hessian and rubber. This complex technique, carefully layered in a threedimensional relief, draw on traditional basket making skills while referencing the difficult colonial histories and physical labour which defines day to day living in the DRC.
‘CY15’ made of fine strands of thread, solidified in lacquer and gilded with gold, silver and tin using the Makie-technique, has been layered to create this work. The metallic coatings reflect the light with varying intensities to create a gentle sense of movement, which is further enhanced by the undulating pattern of the strands. This work utilises a new technique, based on the historic kanshitsu dry lacquer tradition, but here instead of draping a single piece of cloth over a surface, many threads have been used, resulting in an object in which lacquer is integral to its structure rather than used solely as a finish.
ANGE DAKOUO
Image courtesy of Lowe Foundation.
Born in 1990, graduated from the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers Multimédia de Bamako (Mali) in 2017, Ange Dakouo is inspired by the universe and costumes of the traditional hunters of Mali which have a refuge value of authenticity and protected knowledge. They also provide protection and exorcise the perils of life.
This textile work, ‘Harmony of Grigris’ explores the practice of wearing personal protective amulets, often called gris-gris in West Africa. An array of gris-gris has been created using briquettes made from compressed cardboard. Each briquette is covered with newspaper in homage to the artist’s father who worked as a printer. The gris-gris, all of varying sizes, are assembled using cotton thread to create a lattice-like structure. Combined, they have the appearance of a patchwork tapestry. Shells, some encased in red thread, are also attached to the lattice. The artist stresses a spiritual dimension to the work, which acts as a metaphor for the search for diversity and harmony.
OZIOMA ONUZULIKE
Image courtesy of Loewe Foundation.
Ozioma Onuzulike is a ceramics artist, poet and historian of African art and design whose studio work has largely focused on the historical and sociological roots of the political and socio-economic turmoil in Africa and their debilitating effects on daily living on the continent. He often explores the aesthetic, symbolic and metaphorical nature of clay (his basic material) and the clay-working processes – pounding, crushing, hammering, wedging, grinding, cutting, pinching, punching, perforating, burning, firing – in his making of the multiple units that characterise his mixed-media projects.
This ceramic tapestry, ‘Embroidered Royal Jumper for Peter Obi,’ has been constructed from thousands of handcrafted clay palm kernel shells, which are woven together using copper wire to resemble sumptuous West African textiles such as Akwete, Aso Oke and Kente. Each shell is bisque-fired, then selectively dipped into ash glazes, before being inlaid with glass from crushed recycled bottles. With the addition of glass, the shells resemble beads historically used as tokens to trade enslaved people, but now considered items of prestige and status in much of West Africa.
Other finalists include Andres Anza, Debaroun, Norman Weber, Kazuhiro Toyama, Polly Adams Sutton, Saar Scheerlings, Luis Santos Montes, Ikuya Sagara, Weon Rhee, Aya Oki, Gaku Nakane, Alison Croney Moses, Kira Kim, Heechan Kim, Hiroshi Kaneyasu, Racso Jugarap, Ferne Jacobs, Yuefeng He, Raven Halfmoon, Kevin Grey, Karl Fritsch, Jeremy Frey, Ken Eastman, Eunmi Chun, Chun Tai Chen, emmanuel boos and Miki Asai.
Learn more about LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize
