A First Look at The Planter Show, an Exhibition That Proves the Playful Potential of Flower Pots

By Lilah Ramzi | September 24, 2020

A thumbs-up, a Nike shoe, and more reimaginings of the planter. Photo: Courtesy of Fort Makers

On the ground-floor corner of Manhattan’s Hester and Orchard Streets is a gallery with almost floor to ceiling windows that invite in the eyes of passersby. It’s an exhibition space belonging to Fort Makers Gallery, and as of this week, it will showcase a lush assortment of over 40 plants and vessels, appearing to be a greenhouse in the middle of the Lower East Side.

It’s called The Planter Show, and, per Fort Makers’s co-founder & crea-tive director Nana Spears, the idea was actually conceived long before the possibility of a pandemic, and before the house plant became the city dwellers’s most valuable possession.

“It’s been about three years that it’s been on our minds,” says Spears, who runs the space with partners Noah Spencer and Naomi Clark. “It’s not the first time we’ve worked with plants but we’ve always had this larger show in mind with tons of plants. Not like a regular gallery show with a minimal amount of work and a certain amount of space between each object. This show will be overflowing with work.”

The “works” are over 40 planters made for the occasion by a variety of artists and designers. Some notable participants include Harry Nuriev, Laura Chautin, and Shino Takeda. As Spears explains, the artists were all given the instructions to craft a planter and, unless they preferred to source their own plant, the greenery was provided from Dahing Plants—a local nursery. The only parameter was that the creations had to fit through the gallery doors. Otherwise, the artists were left to have their imaginations run wild like Mother Nature.

A selection of the works with artists’s statements can be previewed be-low (perhaps inspiring you to pursue your own updated vessels). The Planter Show runs September 25 through November 19.

Future Retrieval

Future Retrieval, Vulture Planter (2020). Photo: Courtesy of Fort Makers

“The Vulture Planter is our response to 2020, a mix of end times doom and gloom with the optimism of planting and growth, and the urge to beautify one’s surroundings. Now felt like the perfect time to work with the Vulture form which symbolizes patience and resourcefulness.”