The Cut
In 2024, Japanese artist Kunimasa Aoki built Realm of Living Things 19 by stacking and compressing layers of clay, smoking them in a kiln, and then coating the sculpture with soil and pencil marks. From more than 4,600 artists representing 133 countries, Aoki won the Loewe Foundation’s 2025 Craft Prize and was awarded €50,000.
The jury of leading figures in design — architect and industrial designer Patricia Urquiola, Louvre Department of Decorative Arts director Olivier Gabet, architect Wang Shu, ceramicist Magdalene Odundo, and essayist and architect Frida Escobedo — chose Aoki’s work for its intricate details, such as the “little universes” on the surface of the sculpture, created through the compression of terra-cotta coils.
Loewe launched the Craft Prize in 2016, championed by des
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