Japanese lacquer artist Genta Ishizuka has won the 2019 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, beating 2,500 entrants from more than 100 countries to scoop the prestigious international award.
In a ceremony today in Tokyo, the Kyoto-based craftsman – whose work was acquired for the Victoria & Albert Museum at the Crafts Council’s Collect art fair in 2017 – received a silver trophy and a cash prize of €50,000.
He works with the traditional urushi sap technique, which originated around the 7th and 8th centuries. His winning work, Surface Tactility #11 (2018), is a lustrous form that resembles a bulging bag of oranges, and incorporates fabric and styrene foam balls.