Jennifer Lee (British, b.1956), a regular artist featuring in Maak's bi-annual auctions, was chosen as the Winner of the 2018 Loewe Craft Prize, an international competition with 86 participating countries, 1865 submissions and 30 finalists.
The LOEWE Craft Prize supports and acknowledges international artisans of exceptional ability to create objects of superior aesthetic value that are relevant today and are of cultural significance. Works must exhibit the artist’s personal identity and flair. The jury are composed of leading figures from the world of design, architecture, journalism, criticism and museum curatorship, including Ernst Gamperl, winner of the 2017 edition of the Prize.
Jennifer Lee's spectacular winning piece was the "Pale, Shadowed Speckled Traces, Fading Ellipse, Bronze Specks, Tilted Shelf (2017)". Jonathan Anderson, LOEWE creative director, commented: ‘Jennifer Lee for me is a landmark in form’. The jury commended the work for its classicism, the means by which it rooted the entire exhibition, and its timelessness.
Jennifer Lee's pots are hand-built, the small bases pinched then coiled to create a balance asymmetry, with unique colours created by oxides mixed in with the clay body. Since 1979 Lee has won numerous other awards for her work and regularly exhibits in Europe, Australia and Japan. Other ceramic finalists in this competition include, Aneta Regal and Irina Razumovskaya.
Maak's May 2018 auction is to feature a wonderful piece by Jennifer Lee, 'Dark olive with sand grained spiral', large Bowl, 2002. It is made of stoneware, with a hand-built olive green body with mixed clays producing pale speckled and dark olive integral spirals, with a painted maker's mark. Lot 281, £6,000 - 8000. This will be on view at the ROA Gallery. Pall Mall 14 - 17 May 2018.