Southern Guild artist Dominique Zinkpè has received the honour of a Special Mention at this year’s awarding of the LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize. Zinkpè’s hand-carved wooden wall relief was one of thirty shortlisted works by exceptional international artisans. This year’s edition of the annual prize-giving sought to honour the mastery of time-intensive traditional craft techniques, skillful manipulation of material, and unique applications of form and colour. The sixth edition of the prize featured finalists from 16 countries, working within a variety of mediums.

Zinkpè’s cross-disciplinary practice is inspired by his Beninese culture, animism, religion and the transcendent power of the supernatural. The artist’s selected work, The Watchers, comprises a population of intricately carved wooden statuettes. The palm sized Ibeji figurines evoke the Yoruba traditional belief connected to twinship. Individually crafted from blocks of solid wood, the figures were then assembled on a wooden frame, carved from the found timber of an old canoe. The Craft Prize jury lauded the work for its “sculptural reinterpretation of traditional beliefs and its expansion of what contemporary craft can be.”