Cj Hendry’s Flower Market Exhibition Highlights

By Senay GOKCEN | Editor-in-Chief

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Contemporary artist Cj Hendry‘s Flower Market exhibition, a stunning collaboration with global luxury beauty brand Clé de Peau Beauté and in partnership with Four Freedoms Park Conservancy, took place at the FDR Four Freedoms State Park on Roosevelt Island, from September 13th to 14th.

Known for creating art on a grand scale, Cj Hendry’s latest extraordinary exhibit was no different and featured a 120-foot by 40-foot greenhouse built on the lawn of the FDR Four Freedoms State Park on Roosevelt Island. The greenhouse was filled with 100,000 meticulously crafted plush flowers inspired by the natural radiance and botanicals used in Clé de Peau Beauté products.

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Cj Hendry’s Flower Market Exhibition at FDR Four Freedoms State Park.
Photos courtesy of Cj Hendry.

I just make the art I make and people receive it in the way they receive it. I don’t spend much time dwelling on why it’s different. I just make the art that I know how to make. I am continually motivated to create these beautiful exhibitions and environments. I have a lot of fun, and the team has a lot of fun, and we are very good at it. Getting the opportunity to create more of these exhibitions in the future is what keeps me going.
— Cj Hendry

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Cj Hendry’s Flower Market Exhibition Event Images
Photography by Antonio Ajam, courtesy of Cj Hendry.

The exhibit drew a large crowd of art lovers, including entrepreneur and lifestyle icon Martha Stewart, a best-selling author, Emmy Award-winning TV host, and founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

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Originally set up on Roosevelt Island, Cj Hendry’s Flower Market exhibition was unexpectedly shut down due to overcrowding. Since its original location terminated the event, for the final day, Cj Hendry’s Team managed to move the exhibition to the the Box Factory at the Industry City in Brooklyn on Sunday.

THE FLOWER MARKET Q&A

In celebration of Cj Hendry’s Flower Market exhibition, we are excited to share an exclusive interview with the renowned artist herself. Known for her captivating large-scale installations and intricate attention to detail, Hendry’s latest project, a collaboration with luxury beauty brand Clé de Peau Beauté, has left art enthusiasts in awe. In this interview, Hendry offers insight into her creative process for the Flower Market and the inspiration behind her vibrant 100,000-flower greenhouse.

Can you share the inspiration behind The Flower Market?

Cj Hendry – When working with an extraordinary brand like Clé de Peau Beauté, the key elements of their beautiful products were a natural starting point for me. So, we kept coming back to building a concept around flowers.

We strive to build these fantastical, artificial environments to subvert viewer expectations. Obviously, the flowers we have created are plush; they’re not real, but by creating them on a grand scale, we can evoke a feeling beyond the singular. I enjoy bringing a childlike lens to my exhibitions, which is where the element of plush came from. You just see them and instinctually want to touch and hold them.

Why did you create plush flowers for this pop-up?

Cj Hendry – It’s important for me to stay true to my brand and I think what we’ve done really well is create these extraordinary artificial environments. I have a tendency to create exhibitions that appeal to the child in all of us, so by in incorporating my childlike sensibility with the elegance and quality of Clé de Peau Beauté, we arrive at plush.

Have you always wanted to create plush flowers?

Cj Hendry – Yes. In fact, I’ve been thinking about this type of concept for a couple of years. Sometimes, I think of concepts, and they mull around in my head for years, and I can’t quite place them. As soon as we started connecting with the floral elements of Clé de Peau Beauté, everything came together in my head: tens of thousands of flowers in a massive greenhouse. The only question became, “How do we make it happen?”

Can you walk us through the creative process for creating & choosing the flowers?

Cj Hendry – We were very conscious of referencing as many Clé de Peau Beauté ingredients as we could, which was just fun. We made many trips to the flower district in Chelsea.

Can you expand on your decision to choose these specific flowers?

Cj Hendry – We don’t have a lot of flowers in this exhibition, but we’re very specific with the flowers we’ve chosen. We wanted to incorporate the Clé de Peau Beauté essence, and be intentional in referencing their ingredients.

Can you share your favorite flowers from the collection?

Cj Hendry – Oh, without a doubt, it’s the Radiant Lily. The clean lines. I’m personally an all-white everything fan and would love a vase of them at home. There’s something really clean and fresh about the Radiant Lily that makes it my favorite.

Can you expand on your decision to create a custom greenhouse?

Cj Hendry – To be able to execute the concept to its fullest, we had to attack everything with a sense of scale. We looked at a little flower shop in the city and at other locations but it didn’t seem quite right, so we really worked hard to make sure that we were able to get the greenhouse in the most extraordinary location that we could. It’s really exciting to take something like a greenhouse and place it in the middle of New York City where it has no right to be.

Why Roosevelt Island?

Cj Hendry – Roosevelt Island is iconic in so many ways. Franklin D Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, in my opinion, is an architectural marvel. The fact that it’s between Brooklyn and Manhattan on its own island within New York, I just love it. Also, FDR Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island doesn’t do too many collaborations. They don’t allow too many people onto the island to do exhibitions like this, so it’s an incredible privilege we’ve been granted. I’m so grateful they’re on board with me as an artist and Clé de Peau Beauté as a brand.

What is your goal with this exhibition?

Cj Hendry – My goal is always to raise the bar, to push myself beyond the bounds of everything I’ve done before. We are always trying to make the viewer think and question their environment. To be given an opportunity to work with a brand like Clé de Peau Beauté is just absolutely a dream come true and really pushes me to go above and beyond.

Clé de Peau Beauté & Cj Hendry

Talk to us about your partnership with Clé de Peau Beauté -how did that come about?

Cj Hendry – When Clé de Peau Beauté initially reached out, we thought it might be for a small social media activation, which we were thrilled about as everyone on the team knew of the brand. Then, when we found out Clé de Peau Beauté was interested in a larger partnership, we were ecstatic! It felt unheard of that a brand on the level of Clé de Peau Beauté would take on a concept like this, so we were incredibly grateful.

Tell us about your favorite Clé de Peau Beauté product and why it is a staple of yours?

Cj Hendry – I’m obsessed with The Serum. I, and most of the team are more skin-care-focused than makeup, so the serum is an absolute must for us. Applying it before anything else feels like it increases the efficacy of everything else and leaves you feeling uber-hydrated, which is my number one goal.

Can you name your top five Clé de Peau Beauté must-haves?

Cj Hendry – The Serum, La Crème, Clarifying Cleansing Foam, Lip Glorifier, and the UV Protective Cream SPF 50+, as I mentioned I’m all about the skin.

How did you first learn about Clé de Peau Beauté?

Cj Hendry – I was in my late teens when I started getting into skincare and first came to know of Clé de Peau Beauté. I’ll be honest: at the time, I was certainly not in a position to afford Clé de Peau Beauté, but I was very aware of the brand. And so, hence, to get an email 20 years later, it’s kind of bananas and crazy.

The Radiant Lily (White Lily)

Can you walk us through your creative process for designing the White Lily?

Cj Hendry – When we first discussed our partnership, Clé de Peau Beauté and I were really focused on the concept of radiance and how I could encapsulate that through my art. Pretty quickly, I honed in on the Radiant Lily, which is such a hero ingredient in the serum. I wanted to capture the simple radiance and elegance of this beautiful flower and build a concept around it.

Were there specific elements of the Radiant Lily that you wanted to capture?

Cj Hendry – I wanted to capture the organic beauty and clean elegance of the Radiant Lily. The simple lines and pure white petals are evocative of my practice in general and really became an entry point for me.

(Interview, courtesy of the artist, Cj Hendry.)

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Cj Hendry
https://cjhendrystudio.com | @cj_hendry

Cj Hendry (b. 1988) is a New York-based artist originally from Brisbane, Australia. Hendry transforms her fascination with contemporary material culture into large-scale, hyper-photorealistic drawings. Cj Hendry’s exhibits are intended to be actively experienced through the engaging, and thought-provoking environments she constructs. For her 2023 exhibition Epilogue, guests were welcomed into a reimagined 1830s Georgian church that was blanketed in falling white petals for ten straight days. At Public Pool (2024), visitors traveled hours into the Las Vegas desert to dip into a temporary Olympic-sized swimming pool, complete with lounge chairs and pool floaties. Each Cj Hendry exhibit, from Miami to Melbourne, draws massive crowds, with attendees sometimes waiting in line for several hours to experience the magic within. Celebrity clientele and avid private collectors mean Hendry’s waitlist is now well over 3,000 collectors deep, with a wait time of up to five years to get their hands on a piece.

Clé de Peau Beauté
www.cledepeaubeaute.com | @CledePeauBeauteUS

Clé de Peau Beauté, the global luxury brand from Shiseido Co., Ltd., was founded in 1982 as the ultimate expression of elegance and science. Clé de Peau Beauté means the key to skin’s beauty. The philosophy of the brand is to unlock radiance by harnessing makeup technologies and advanced skincare from around the world. Forever guided by an exquisite aesthetic sensibility and intelligence, Clé de Peau Beauté has instilled its products with modernity, enchantment, and dynamism to emerge as an industry leader in delivering radiance so remarkable, as if it emanates from within. Available in 26 countries and regions worldwide.

Four Freedoms Park Conservancy
www.fdrfourfreedomspark.org | @4FreedomsPark

Four Freedoms Park Conservancy (FFPC), founded in 2011, operates under a Friends Agreement with New York State Parks to produce and curate public programs at Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. The park, designed by the groundbreaking American modernist architect Louis Kahn, is among the most significant architectural masterpieces in New York City. By leveraging this spectacular architecture and the unique location of the park, FFPC strives to produce events, installations and public art and works with nonprofit partners that can ignite conversations about the Four Freedoms and the legacy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
https://parks.ny.gov | @NYStateParks

The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation oversees more than 250 parks, historic sites, recreational trails, golf courses, boat launches, and more, which saw a record 84 million visits in 2023. For more information on any of these recreation areas, visit parks.ny.gov, download the free NY State Parks Explorer app, or call 518.474.0456.

Industry City
https://industrycity.com | @industrycity

Industry City is NYC’s most diverse creative hub, housing more than 550 companies from design and media to technology and manufacturing. The six million-square foot, 35-acre campus along Brooklyn’s waterfront is a thriving ecosystem where 8,500 people come to work daily. With restaurants, pop-up shops, private event space, food and furniture retailers, and abundant outdoor space, IC has something for every type of New Yorker– from hustling entrepreneurs and scaling business owners to bar hoppers and the backyard-less.

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Editor-in-Chief’s Note:
Special thanks to the Cj Hendry Team and the PR Agency – Maximus Communications for the exclusive imagery and the Flower Market opening night’s VIP Invitation.

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All images courtesy of the artist and © 2024 Cj Hendry.

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