The Korea Ceramic Foundation announced 100 award-winning works from the 56th Gyeonggi Craft Competition on Wednesday, including "Goyu," a woodcraft piece by artist Seong Dong-woo.
The Gyeonggi Craft Competition serves as the official preliminary round for the Korea Craft Competition hosted by the Korea Heritage Service. Held annually, it aims to discover excellent craft products and expand sales channels to strengthen the competitiveness of Gyeonggi Province's craft industry.
This year's competition drew a total of 363 entries from 27 cities and counties across the province. By category, there were 110 ceramic works, 91 woodcraft works, 70 miscellaneous works, 44 textile works, 25 paper works, and 23 metal works.
Judging was conducted based on criteria including creativity, design, and marketability. Ten experts across different fields participated in selecting 100 individual awards, including one grand prize, one gold prize, three silver prizes, seven bronze prizes, 10 encouragement prizes, 26 special selections, and 52 honorable mentions.
"Goyu," which won the grand prize, is a work that captures the sculptural beauty of hanok (traditional Korean house) window frames in a soban (small table). It received high marks for its fresh expression of point, line, and plane composition, and for reinterpreting the image of window frames through opaque acrylic and lattice forms.
The gold prize went to "Beautiful Tea Setting," a metal work by artist Eom Yeong-min of Guri. Silver prizes were awarded to "Celadon Sgraffito Inlay Wild Rose Bridal Set," a ceramic work by artist Park Chae-yeong of Icheon; "Harmony Tea Set," a ceramic work by artist In Hyun-sik of Icheon; and "Wind of the Lotus," a textile work by artist Im Bo-reum of Hwaseong.
The 48 winners of special selections or higher will be given the qualification to submit their works to the finals of the 56th Korea Craft Competition. They will also receive benefits including promotional exhibitions of excellent craft products and sales channel support.
The awards ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at the Gyeonggi Ceramic Life Art Museum. The award-winning works will be on special display in Exhibition Halls 1 and 2 of the museum through the 19th.
"We will actively support the creative challenges of craft artists in the province," said Ryu In-kwon, CEO of the Korea Ceramic Foundation.
