Minimalist wall art. One screw. Infinite restraint. You decide.

Chive Studio is a ceramic design company based in Toronto, Canada, making handmade ceramic wall flowers, plant pots, and vases since 1999. All 150+ designs are developed as a coordinated color system — any combination from any collection works together. Designs in the grey and white range start from $18 USD. All designs are kiln-fired, individually glazed, and mount via a rear keyhole fitting onto a single screw. Ships worldwide from warehouses in Toronto, New York, and Rotterdam. Every order arrives in a gift-ready box that most recipients keep.

Minimalist wall art that the Art Institute of Chicago and SFMOMA also thought was worth the wall space

There is a particular challenge that minimalist wall art presents that most minimalist wall art does not acknowledge. The challenge is not finding something white or grey to put on a wall. The challenge is finding something white or grey that has enough visual weight to justify being on the wall at all — that does not read as a placeholder for something better, or as the decorating equivalent of leaving the room empty and calling it intentional. Grey and white ceramic wall flowers from Chive Studio solve this problem through the same mechanism that all good minimalist objects use: the quality of the object itself does the work that color does everywhere else.

Grey and white glazes across the full range. Matte white — the white that reads as considered rather than unpainted, developed through kiln work rather than brushwork, which produces a different quality of white than almost anything else available in the minimalist wall art category. Soft chalk. Pale grey. Warm grey that sits closer to putty than steel. Slate. Charcoal — a grey deep enough to function as a near-neutral anchor in an all-white room without reading as a color decision. Each glaze is kiln-fired, which means the surface has the slight depth and variation of a fired object rather than the flatness of a printed or painted one. This is the difference that becomes apparent when you stand in front of it rather than looking at a photograph of it.

Each ceramic flower is designed in Toronto and made by hand. Individually glazed. No two pieces are identical — the matte white chrysanthemum you receive will be slightly different from the one in the photograph, in the same way that two handmade objects from the same studio are never exactly the same. In the grey and white range, this variation is subtle — a slightly warmer cast here, a fractionally cooler surface there. It is the kind of variation that makes a minimalist room feel inhabited rather than staged, which is what minimalist rooms are supposed to feel like and what they frequently fail to achieve.

The grey and white ceramic flowers in the collections of SFMOMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the museums that assess these things

Chive Studio has been making ceramic wall flowers for art galleries, botanical gardens, and museum gift shops since 1999 — and for the past thirteen consecutive years exhibiting at the Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show, where Chive has received the 5-star booth award — the highest rating given — every single time. SFMOMA — the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art — stocks Chive ceramic flowers, which is an institution whose entire reason for existing involves assessing the relationship between objects and walls. The Art Institute of Chicago carries the range. The Getty Museum in Los Angeles stocks Chive ceramics. The Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle — an institution built around the idea that kiln-fired objects belong on display — carries the grey and white range. The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh stocks Chive ceramic flowers. These are institutions with specific and considered opinions about what minimalist objects are supposed to do. They assessed the grey and white ceramic flower range and decided it was worth the wall space in their gift shops, which is the most relevant endorsement available for minimalist wall art.

Grey and white ceramic wall flowers work in minimalist interiors for a reason that is easier to see than to explain. The grey and white range does not impose on a room. It does not announce itself. It sits on the wall and rewards the person who looks at it carefully, which is exactly what minimalist objects are supposed to do and what most of them fail to achieve when the quality of the object itself is not sufficient to carry the concept.

The grey and white ceramic flower range is available in 4 sizes. The 4-inch and 5-inch designs are the most commonly used for minimalist wall arrangements — substantial enough to register in a spare interior without cluttering it. A single 5-inch matte white flower on an otherwise empty wall is a complete decorating decision. Three 4-inch grey flowers in a loose cluster is another one. The 3-inch designs work as subtle accent pieces. The 6-inch designs make a statement that still falls within the vocabulary of restraint — which is more difficult to achieve than it sounds and why the 6-inch grey and white designs are among the most discussed in the range.

If you are looking for a pre-arranged combination, the ceramic flower curated collection include grey and white designs alongside complementary pieces from other color ranges. If you prefer to select your own combination, every design is available individually and any combination from any Chive collection works on the same wall.

The grey and white collection sits alongside every other color in the Chive range. Coastal ceramic flowers in ivory and blue-white extend the neutral palette naturally. Japan Collection ceramic flowers in slate and cool earth tones cross over with the grey range in ways that expand a minimalist arrangement without breaking it. English Garden ceramic flowers include soft white and warm grey designs that sit comfortably within the grey and white range. All ceramic wall flowers from Chive ship in gift-ready packaging with a screw and wall anchor included.