Flicking through photos of the 30 objects competing for the subsequent Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, it’s often difficult to decipher the top use, the fabric employed — and in some cases, if one is likely to be taking a look at living, organic compounds.

Unexpected forms and a “sense of playfulness and surprise” characterize most of the entries for the 2023 edition, which encompass ceramics, woodworking, textiles, furniture, paper, basket-making, glass, metal, jewelry lacquer, leather and bookbinding.

A panel of experts whittled down the finalists from 2,700 entries from 117 different countries.

Anatxu Zabalbeascoa, a design journalist and executive secretary of the experts panel, said, “We’re blissful to have been capable of further expose the notion of craft with artistic ambition by analyzing non-western canon aesthetics in addition to by approaching figurative craft.”

The winner, who receives 50,000 euros, is to be revealed on May 16 at The Noguchi Museum in Latest York. All 30 shortlisted works will go on display in Isamu Noguchi’s studio from May 17 until June 18.

Among the many 13 jury members who will select the prize are Abraham Thomas, curator of contemporary architecture, design and ornamental arts on the Metropolitan Museum of Art; architects Benedetta Tagliabue, Patricia Urquiola and Wang Shu; ceramicist Magdalene Odundo, and Olivier Gabet, director of the art department on the Louvre Museum.

Established in 2016, the annual craft prize is the brainchild of Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson and is a tribute to the Spanish house’s roots as a collective craft workshop in 1846.

Anderson has long been a fan of craft, and the prize exalts “excellence, artistic merit and innovation in modern craftsmanship,” in accordance with Loewe.

In previous years, the prize ceremony has been held on the Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid, The Design Museum in London and the Sogetsu Kaikan in Tokyo. In the course of the pandemic, one edition was held digitally in a joint presentation with Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and on the Seoul Museum of Craft Art.

This sixth edition offers examples of time-intensive techniques, skillful manipulation of materials and the surprise of trompe l’oeil.

“Most of the works presented on this 12 months’s shortlist also examine the connection between light, material and surface, with an authority handling of materials and form used to remodel the reflective properties of the works and to create a way of movement,” Loewe noted.