Wender·Vista
Urmia
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileIran
in West Azerbaijan, on the plain west of the great salt lake

Urmia

— — the pink the lake leaves on the wind.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“A city of mosques, churches and walled gardens on the plain between the Zagros foothills and the great salt lake that gives the province its older name. Urmia is Iran's Assyrian Christian centre and one of its oldest continuously inhabited towns. The lake at its eastern edge, once the largest in the Middle East, has retreated for thirty years; what water remains turns rose in late summer.

from the studio
Urmia
— bring it home

Urmia, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Urmia

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

Urmia sits at roughly 1,330 metres on the plain west of Lake Urmia, historically one of the largest hypersaline lakes on earth. The city is the capital of West Azerbaijan Province and home to about 736,000 people, predominantly Azerbaijani Turkic with long-standing Assyrian Christian and Armenian communities. The plain is bordered to the west by the Zagros mountains and the Turkish frontier, and the lake itself lies some twenty kilometres to the east.

— the water

Lake Urmia has lost more than 80 percent of its surface area since the 1990s, the combined effect of upstream damming, agricultural extraction and a warming climate. As the lake shrinks the salinity rises, and halophilic microbes including the archaeon Halobacterium turn the remaining water a deep rose-pink in the hot months. The colour is most pronounced from July through September. A restoration programme begun in 2013 has stabilised, but not reversed, the decline.

— the year

Urmia's calendar runs across three faith communities. Nowruz at the spring equinox empties the bazaar for two weeks. The Assyrian church marks Kha b-Nisan, the Assyrian new year, on April 1, with processions that originate in a community settled here for nearly two millennia. The cathedral of Mart Maryam, claimed by local tradition as one of the oldest churches in the world, anchors the Assyrian quarter near the old citadel.

— where
Iran · Urmia, West Azerbaijan
— elevation
1,332 m · 4,370 ft
— position
37.5527° N · 45.0760° E
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
20 km E
Lake Urmia
salt lake
1 km C
Mart Maryam Cathedral
Assyrian church
N
Urmia
Lake Urmia
Mart Maryam Cathedral
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Urmia — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

In northwest Iran, capital of West Azerbaijan Province, about twenty kilometres west of Lake Urmia and roughly 900 kilometres northwest of Tehran by road. The plain sits at about 1,330 metres above sea level.

As Lake Urmia has shrunk, the rising salinity allows Halobacterium and related halophilic microbes to bloom and dominate the water column. Their pigments turn the lake rose in the hot months from July to September.

About 736,000 people. The majority speak Azerbaijani Turkic, and the city carries old continuous Assyrian Christian and Armenian Christian communities, alongside Kurdish and Persian-speaking residents in smaller numbers.

Partially. A government restoration programme launched in 2013 has slowed the loss and stabilised the surface, but the lake remains roughly a fifth of its 1990s extent. Recovery depends on upstream water release and rainfall.

Mart Maryam, the Assyrian Church of Saint Mary, in the old quarter. Local tradition places its founding in the first century; the present structure dates to roughly the twelfth, with substantial later restoration.

— about the piece in your home

It's been a meaningful gift for customers in the Assyrian and Iranian-Azerbaijani diasporas. The piece carries the lake's colour and the old quarter's geometry without trying to summarise the city. A Small or Medium with a handwritten note travels well.

The rose, salt-white, and Zagros-grey palette pairs with Mediterranean-modern, warm-minimal, and jewel-tone Maximalist rooms. The piece holds against the cream-plaster and walnut palette common in Persian-diaspora interiors.

The recent shift toward soft pinks, terracottas and saline whites has brought this palette back into the centre of warm-neutral and Mediterranean-modern rooms. The piece reads contemporary without trend-chasing.

A single Large sits well above most sofas. A 4-tile or 9-tile Mural reads as architecture above a long console or a dining sideboard, where the lake's horizon can stretch.

Yes, with Dura Satin or Matte. Both finishes are scratch-resistant and stable in humidity for vertical use behind a sink or above a counter.

A microfibre cloth and water. The colour is infused into the ceramic surface beneath the finish, so it will not fade or lift with ordinary cleaning.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is original to our studio in Knoxville, Tennessee, curated by Reid Wender. We do not license imagery from other artists or stock libraries.

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