Wender·Vista
Kaohsiung
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileTaiwan
on the southwestern coast of Taiwan, facing the Taiwan Strait

Kaohsiung

— — the harbour city that learned to glow back.

— 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

“On Taiwan's southwestern coast, Kaohsiung holds the island's largest port and its busiest container terminals, with the Love River cutting north through downtown to the sea. Lotus Pond rims the northern district with painted shrines and the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas. After dark the cargo cranes light up along with the 85 Sky Tower, and the waterfront promenade fills with night-market traffic.

from the studio
Kaohsiung
— bring it home

Kaohsiung, 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 Kaohsiung

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

Kaohsiung lies on the southwestern coast of Taiwan, facing the Taiwan Strait, and is the island's third-largest city with about 2.7 million residents across 38 districts. The Port of Kaohsiung, sheltered behind the long Cijin sandbar, is the island's largest container port and ranks among the world's top twenty by throughput. Originally a small fishing settlement called Takao under Hoklo and Japanese rule, the city was renamed Kaohsiung in 1920 and merged with surrounding Kaohsiung County in 2010 to become a special municipality covering 2,952 square kilometres.

— the water

The Love River, called Ai-he by locals, runs about 12 kilometres from Niaosong District through downtown Kaohsiung to Kaohsiung Harbor. Heavily polluted by the 1970s, it was cleaned up over two decades of dredging and sewer rebuilding; gondola-style cruise boats now run after dark beneath the lighted bridges. The harbour itself, sheltered by the Cijin sandbar that stretches 11 kilometres south, handles roughly 10 million TEU of container traffic a year and remains the heart of the city's working waterfront.

— informed by Wikipedia — Love River
— the stone

At Lotus Pond in Zuoying, the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas, finished in 1976, rise from the water on a short causeway; visitors enter through the dragon's mouth and exit through the tiger's, a passage said to turn bad luck into good. Nearby, the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts at Weiwuying, opened in 2018 and designed by Dutch firm Mecanoo, is the largest performing arts centre under a single roof in the world, sheltering five venues beneath a 35,000-square-metre wave-form canopy.

— where
Taiwan · Kaohsiung Special Municipality
— elevation
10 m · 33 ft
— position
22.6273° N · 120.3014° 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.
8 km N
Lotus Pond
ornamental lake
3 km W
Pier-2 Art Center
arts district
4 km SW
Cijin Island
sandbar island
N
Kaohsiung
Lotus Pond
Pier-2 Art Center
Cijin Island
— common questions

What people ask.

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

Kaohsiung sits on the southwestern coast of Taiwan, facing the Taiwan Strait, about 350 kilometres south of Taipei. It is the island's third-largest city with roughly 2.7 million residents.

The Port of Kaohsiung is Taiwan's largest container port and one of the world's top twenty by throughput, handling about 10 million TEU per year. It shelters behind the 11-kilometre Cijin sandbar.

Twin seven-storey pagodas finished in 1976 on Lotus Pond in Zuoying District, dedicated to the Ci Ji Palace. Visitors traditionally enter through the dragon's mouth and exit through the tiger's, a passage believed to convert misfortune into blessing.

The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts at Weiwuying, designed by Dutch firm Mecanoo and opened in 2018, is the world's largest performing arts centre under a single roof, with five venues beneath a 35,000-square-metre canopy.

October through March brings the dry, warm season, with daytime temperatures in the low twenties Celsius. The Lantern Festival lights the Love River for two weeks each February and is the city's signature spring event.

— about the piece in your home

It has been a meaningful gift for many of our customers with ties to the city. Lotus Pond and the harbour skyline read as home to anyone raised in southern Taiwan. A Small with a note from the studio carries well.

The harbour blues, pagoda reds, and tropical greens suit Asian-modern, Japandi, and Coastal-modern rooms. It anchors well above a teak console or beside a paper-shade lamp.

A single Large covers a console or reading chair. Above a standard sofa, a 4-tile Mural reads at the right scale. For a stair wall or great-room feature, the 9-tile Mural carries the room.

Yes. Order the Dura Satin or Matte finish for any room with steam or splatter. Both resist scratching and clean easily. The Glossy finish is best reserved for dry walls and framed display.

A soft microfibre cloth and warm water are all you need. The colour lives in the ceramic surface beneath a thin glossy finish, so it will not fade or lift with normal cleaning. Avoid abrasive pads.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is original to our studio in Knoxville, Tennessee, curated by Reid Wender and hand-finished in-house. The work is not licensed or reproduced from any third-party source.

— if this one stayed with you

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