The installation features planted pots by ceramicist Pedro Ramirez and artists inspired by his process, including Louise Eastman, Susanne Greene and Janis Stemmerman. Taking cues from the nearby Flower District, A Thousand Rainy Days introduces the natural world to the gallery.The forms bring together the living and the inanimate, the built environment and wilderness, artistry and utilitarianism. Ramirez’s vision offers respite from the bustling commercial neighborhood and glimpses into the relevance of horticulture and biology.

Louise Eastman is involved in weaving and ceramics. She has worked at Greenwich House Ceramics where she was inspired by Pedro Ramirez’s oeuvre. His piece, growing on a window sill, sent her in a new direction and she has begun an exploration of growing bricks. Eastman received her MFA from Pratt Institute, NY, and has recently shown at Planthouse, Silas Marder Gallery and Russell Janis Gallery. Previously, she received a MacDowell Colony Fellowship. She currently lives and works in New York City.

Susanne Greene has worked for 25 years, mostly in clay, and has always loved how inclusive the medium is. Clay and wood, clay and wax, clay and metal—it works with everything. When Greene saw Ramirez’s plant pots she knew she wanted to try bringing green life out of clay.

Pedro Ramirez is an artist who creates large-scale installation work as well as “living” ceramic vessels. His work exists at the intersection of art and science. Ramirez is an educator who teaches ceramics with a focus on organic forms which pay homage to the earth and the environment. Ramirez has exhibited at First Street Gallery, Jane Hartsook Gallery, and Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery in New York City. He has created special commissions for the Living Beyond Belief Foundation and taught at the Third Street Music School Settlement. He holds an MFA in studio art from The City College of New York. 

Janis Stemmermann is an artist and designer living and working in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art with a BFA in sculpture and is a recipient of an artist grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Her most recent work is focused on ceramics and printmaking as well as experimentation with various processes of craft, color and material. Stemmermann trained as a fine art print maker with master printer Catherine Mosley, working with American painter Robert Motherwell at his studio in Greenwich, Connecticut. She went on to found and operate Brooklyn Press, a print studio focusing on creating unique editions with contemporary artists, becoming a member of the Printmaking Archive at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Her editions are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and the New York Public Library. Recently she co-founded and is creative director of Russell Janis, a website and project space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, hosting artist collaborations and making art and design projects.