In a captivating fusion of contemporary art and cutting-edge design concept, Australian-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry has unveiled her first permanent art store, the Flower Shop, located at 172 Prince Street in the bustling heart of SoHo, New York. This latest venture transcends the typical retail model, transforming a simple commercial space into a fixed piece of the artist’s signature conceptual work, offering a humorous yet profound take on consumer culture and the ephemeral nature of beauty.
The Flower Shop is a direct, permanent response to the overwhelming public demand that followed Hendry’s viral and immersive Flower Market experiences in 2024 and 2025. Known globally for her hyper-realistic drawings and large-scale, experiential installations—which have ranged from a conceptual flower market in Brooklyn to an Olympic-sized pool installation in the Mojave Desert—Hendry consistently seeks to flip the script on everyday objects and rituals. With this brick-and-mortar store, she makes her work accessible on a consistent basis, moving beyond the fleeting nature of her sold-out pop-up shows.
At the core of the Flower Shop’s design concept are the products themselves: brightly coloured plush flowers designed to defy decay. Unlike traditional bouquets that wilt in a matter of days, Hendry’s textile creations are “built to last—and built to be collected”. This simple material inversion allows the artist to inject a playful, enduring quality into a universally understood act—the gifting of flowers. As Hendry herself notes, the store “flips that idea on its head. These flowers never die, which makes them funny, a little cheeky, and—hopefully—the most fun gift you’ll ever give”.
The store’s opening signals a significant evolution in the artist’s prolific career, merging the worlds of art, play, and retail in a manner characteristic of modern experiential retail. The structure and interior are designed to evoke the high saturation and familiar rhythm of a New York flower stand or bodega, but the immaculate rows of plush, non-organic blooms create an intentional sense of the uncanny. Visitors are invited to explore a wide variety of these creations, which are available every day of the week, with the added incentive of one exclusive plush flower released daily.
This permanent art store offers a uniquely democratic entry point into Hendry’s world. Priced affordably at just $10 per flower, the creations are perfectly positioned for collecting, displaying, or gifting. They serve as an effortless token of affection for any occasion—from Valentine’s Day and anniversaries to “just-because” moments—solving the age-old problem of the last-minute shopper. This low-cost accessibility contrasts sharply with the high demand for her other work, which often attracts celebrity collectors and feeds a waitlist of over 3,000 people globally.
Ultimately, the Cj Hendry Flower Shop is a smart piece of architecture and design that works on multiple conceptual levels. It is a physical monument to her practice of transforming the mundane, ensuring that her flowers, once an ephemeral gesture, are now an enduring collectible item in SoHo New York. Open seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., it is a new permanent art store destination for anyone seeking a piece of contemporary art that promises to be just as long-lasting as the love it might be purchased to represent.