Wender·Vista
Johor Bahru
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileMalaysia
across the Causeway from Singapore

Johor Bahru

— — the lights of the strait, just before the bridge.

— 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

“The southern tip of peninsular Malaysia, where the Tebrau Strait narrows into the Johor-Singapore Causeway. The white domes of the Sultan Abu Bakar State Mosque sit above the water; the old shophouses of Jalan Tan Hiok Nee keep their colours. A city that lives in two clocks — the daily commute across the strait, and the slower hours of laksa stalls and night markets along Jalan Wong Ah Fook.

from the studio
Johor Bahru
— bring it home

Johor Bahru, 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 Johor Bahru

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

Johor Bahru is the capital of Johor state and the southernmost city on mainland Asia, separated from Singapore by the 1,056-metre Johor-Singapore Causeway opened in 1923. Population sits near 860,000 in the city proper and more than 1.6 million across the metropolitan area, making it Malaysia's second-largest urban region. The city grew under Sultan Abu Bakar in the late nineteenth century, when the royal seat moved from Telok Blangah to the north bank of the Tebrau Strait.

— the stone

The Sultan Abu Bakar State Mosque, finished in 1900, sits on a coastal bluff overlooking the strait. Its four minarets borrow the form of British clock towers — a marker of the Victorian-era contact that shaped the late nineteenth-century Johor sultanate. The nearby Istana Besar, the old royal palace built in 1866 in Anglo-Malay style, holds the Royal Abu Bakar Museum. Both buildings face the water, oriented to the same strait the city has always been organised around.

— the visit

Most visitors arrive overland from Singapore through the Causeway or the newer Second Link at Tuas, with the crossing busiest before 8 a.m. and after 6 p.m. on weekdays. The city centre sits within walking distance of the CIQ complex, where buses from Larkin Sentral connect to the rest of peninsular Malaysia. Hawker stalls along Jalan Wong Ah Fook stay open late; the Sultan Abu Bakar State Mosque admits non-Muslim visitors outside prayer hours.

— where
Malaysia · Johor Bahru, Johor
— position
1.4927° N · 103.7414° 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.
2 km S
Singapore
city across the strait
80 km E
Desaru Coast
beach resort coast
N
Johor Bahru
Singapore
Desaru Coast
— common questions

What people ask.

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

Johor Bahru is the capital of Johor state, at the southern tip of peninsular Malaysia, directly across the Tebrau Strait from Singapore. It is the country's second-largest metropolitan area.

A 1,056-metre road, rail and water-pipe link across the Tebrau Strait, opened in 1923. It connects Johor Bahru to Woodlands in Singapore and remains one of the world's busiest land crossings.

The state mosque of Johor, completed in 1900 under Sultan Abu Bakar. Its four minarets follow Victorian clock-tower forms, reflecting the British contact that shaped the late nineteenth-century sultanate.

Laksa Johor, a noodle dish made with spaghetti and a fish-and-coconut gravy specific to the state; mee rebus; and the late-night hawker stalls along Jalan Wong Ah Fook in the old town.

Modern Johor Bahru dates to 1855, when Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim moved the Johor royal seat from Telok Blangah to the north bank of the strait. Sultan Abu Bakar formalised the city in 1866.

— about the piece in your home

Yes. The city is the daily anchor of the Causeway corridor, and many Singaporeans grew up crossing it for food and family. A Small or Medium with a studio note travels well to either side of the strait.

The blues and tile-whites of the mosque sit well with Coastal-modern, Peranakan-influenced, and Tropical-modern interiors. The piece holds its own against teak, rattan, and the warm whites common in Southeast Asian homes.

A single Large reads well above a standard sofa or console. For a longer wall, a 4-tile Mural extends the harbour line; a 9-tile Mural carries the full skyline above a dining table.

Yes, in the Dura Satin or Matte finish. Both are scratch-resistant and hold up to humidity, which suits the tile to a backsplash, a shower wall, or a steamy kitchen above a hob.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is painted in the studio's own visual language and finished in-house in Knoxville. The work is not licensed from any outside source and exists nowhere else.

— if this one stayed with you

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