LONDON — Japanese sculptor and terracotta artist Kunimasa Aoki has been named the winner of the 2025 Loewe Craft Prize on Thursday evening during an award ceremony in Madrid with a cash prize of 50,000 euros.

Selected by a 12-member jury from 30 shortlisted works on display at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid from Friday to June 29, Aoki’s anamorphic terracotta sculpture “Realm of Living Things 19” stood out for its “honest expression of the ancestral coil process, and how the material is expressed in its raw, unfinished form,” according to the LVMH-owned Spanish luxury house.

His clay work explores how the material distorts and cracks when forces such as gravity, time, and pressure are applied, creating intricate details on the surface as a result.

The jury said the element of risk in the firing process is a testimony to the tenacity and commitment it takes to make a sculpture such as this.

Born in 1963, Aoki was professionally trained at the Department of Sculpture at Musashino Art University in Tokyo before completing a postgraduate course at the University’s Graduate School of Art and Design.

Prior to his Craft Prize win, he has presented solo exhibitions at Gallery Seiho and Tokyo Art Center, and featured in group exhibitions, including at the Kawaguchi City Art Gallery. In 2023, he received the Gold Prize at the 9th Japan Art Center Sculpture Competition in Kobe.

The jury also agreed on two special mentions: Nigerian artist Nifemi Marcus-Bello’s “TM Bench with Bowl,” and “Monument,” an installation from India’s Studio Sumakshi Singh.

The former was created from reclaimed aluminium from the car industry to explore notions of globalization, trade, and the dynamics of power, while the latter was designed as a life-size reimagining of a column from a 12th-century colonnade in Delhi that has been created using copper zari, threaded onto water-soluble fabric which was then dissolved leaving only the thread behind.

The jury liked the simplicity of the raw material in Marcus-Bello’s work. Combined with geometric forms, they believe, creates a powerful statement on consumerism.

Studio Sumakshi Singh’s creation was praised for its poetic contrast between its strong presence and its delicate structure, which serves as a testament to the enduring memory and resilience of cultural histories.

Sheila Loewe, president of the Loewe Foundation, and a member of the jury, which also includes
architect and industrial designer Patricia Urquiola, architect Wang Shu, ceramicist Magdalene Odundo, essayist and architect Frida Escobedo and Olivier Gabet, director of the Department of Decorative Arts at the Louvre Museum, said she was struck by “the incredible breadth of ingenuity, beauty and skill in the works on show.”

“Aoki´s winning sculpture showcases an ancient coiling technique requiring exceptional skill and tenacity to realise, Studio Sumakshi-Singh’s poetic textile work transposes an ancient stone column into intricate copper and Marcus-Bello has repurposed aluminium from the car industry into welded geometric forms that blur the line between sculpture and furniture. Each of these artists demonstrate an ability to transcend the limits of their raw materials, and together the works tell powerful, distinct stories that showcase the breadth of craft today,” she added.

Established in 2016 by former creative director Jonathan Anderson “to acknowledge the importance of craft in today’s culture,” the annual prize also pays tribute to Loewe’s roots as a Madrid-based leather-making collective and supplier to the Spanish royal crown.

Anderson is now the creative director of Dior Men, and is widely speculated to soon take over the responsibility of the women’s business from Maria Grazia Chiuri, who stepped down as artistic director of women’s collections on Thursday.

Founded in 1846, Loewe has in recent years evolved into a fast-growing global luxury brand steeped in contemporary culture.

Meanwhile, the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize has become an important springboard and calling card for winners and shortlisted artisans alike.

The prize debuted in Madrid, and has been staged in cities including Paris, London, Seoul, New York and Tokyo.

The 10th and current edition of the prize attracted more than 4,500 submissions from 132 countries and regions, whittled down to 30 by a panel of experts who considered “technical accomplishment, skills, innovation and artistic vision,” according to Loewe.

The shortlisted artists hail from 18 countries and regions, and submitted designs in materials including ceramics, woodwork, textiles, furniture, paper, glass, metal, and lacquer.

According to the Loewe Foundation, some submissions “conjure a sense of whimsy and the fantastical, while in others, the artist’s hand is felt more strongly through a gestural treatment of the surface.”