Clay that keeps the pressure visible.

Published 21 October 2026 · WHV · Public-source editorial note

It could be a fragment of rock whose layers have been squeezed into an unfamiliar anatomy. Kunimasa Aoki’s Realm of Living Things 19 is terracotta, but it makes you look again at what a clay surface can record. Its fissures and compressed lines are central to its presence.

The surface is a record of forces

The 2024 sculpture received the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize in 2025. The announcement describes layers of clay built up and compressed before firing, followed by surface work with soil and pencil. Traditional coiling becomes a way of exploring pressure and distortion. Shrinkage contributes intricate detail, while the possibility of failure in the kiln remains part of the making problem.

That is different from treating clay as a neutral substance into which any shape can be imposed. The material’s response helps determine the object. Aoki’s own portfolio places the work among other Realm of Living Things sculptures, including much smaller examples, and earlier series exploring related forms. The prize photograph is an opening into a practice rather than its whole explanation.

Find the practice beyond one winning work

Compare those scales and notice how the same layered vocabulary changes with each mass. Follow the artist’s contact route to establish what can currently be seen or acquired. No availability of the winning sculpture is assumed. The compelling discovery is the possibility that a process normally associated with forming a vessel can instead make pressure and time feel almost bodily.

Source and context.

LOEWE Japan: Aoki’s 2025 prize and the making of Realm of Living Things 19 ↗

Kunimasa Aoki: selected works and the wider Realm of Living Things series ↗

Realm of Living Things 19 is dated 2024 and its prize is from 2025, not a new 2026 award. The supplied image depicts the identified work. Current availability, condition and any resale history have not been established.

Source checked 21 October 2026. WHV interpretation is distinct from the source’s account.