Artist Hyun Jeong-yun, a textile artist and alumna of the Department of Ceramic Art at Kookmin University (President Jeong Seung Ryul), has won the Grand Prize at the “2026 Lotte Hofmann Prize for Textile Art (Lotte Hofmann-Gedächtnisstiftung für Textilkunst),” organized by the Lotte Hofmann Foundation for Textile Art in Germany. This is the first time an artist from Asia has received this award, and it is particularly significant as she was selected unanimously by the jury.
 
The Lotte Hofmann Prize is a specialized award for textile art established in 1984 to honor the renowned German textile artist Lotte Hofmann (1907–1981). As Germany’s first and, to date, only award dedicated exclusively to textile art, it is presented to highlight the original artistic worlds and artistic achievements of artists working in Germany and to support the development of contemporary textile art. This year, a panel of seven expert judges reviewed over 50 submissions, and the artist was selected as the Grand Prize winner, receiving a cash prize of 3,000 euros.

Born in 1994, the artist earned a bachelor’s degree in ceramics from Kookmin University in 2017 and went on to study fashion design at Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle in Germany, where she will receive her bachelor’s degree in 2025. Having expanded her field of study from ceramics to fashion design, she has built her own unique world of fiber art based on traditional embroidery techniques.
 
In particular, she has garnered attention for her work that utilizes “Jasu,” a traditional Korean embroidery technique, to depict contemporary subjects such as digital game characters and metaverse imagery. She is recognized for combining traditional craftsmanship with modern visual culture by using needle and thread as tools for painterly expression, thereby expanding the expressive possibilities of embroidery.
 
Hyun held two solo exhibitions in Korea in 2023 and 2024, and in 2025, she received the Sparkasse Leipzig Grassipreis at the Grassimesse in Leipzig, Germany. In 2026, she will participate in the “Talente – Meister der Zukunft” exhibition in Munich, Germany, continuing her active artistic practice on the international stage.
 
Hyun’s works, including the award-winning piece, are currently on display at the “2026 Roho Prize Textile Art Exhibition” held at the Textilsammlung Max Berk in Heidelberg, Germany. The exhibition opened on October 18 and runs through January 10, 2027, showcasing a variety of works and artistic experiments by contemporary German textile artists.
 
This award is particularly meaningful given that Hyun, who majored in ceramics at Kookmin University, has achieved success in the German textile art field by reinterpreting traditional craft techniques in a modern way.