BRETT DAY WINDHAM is a multidisciplinary artist, born in Cambridge, England, and raised in Providence, Rhode Island. Windham received a BFA from Hampshire College and an MFA in sculpture from RISD. She has researched and studied in both Florence and Turin in Italy, Penland N.C., and Paris, France. Her work has been included in shows throughout the US, including The Barnes Foundation (Philadelphia), Smack Mellon (New York), and the RISD Museum (Providence), and has been discussed in The New York Times, Hyperallergic, Art New England, Whitewall, and V Magazine.

Windham’s artwork is based on the idea of collections. Over time, she accumulates materials from such varied sources as sidewalks, the floors of other artist’s studios, or nature: these time-based collections are then used as components for assembled sculptures or works on paper. Using both color and composition, she organizes these groups of natural, commercial, and industrial remnants, creating an intuitive personal taxonomy rooted in ritual. The work confers a sense of place, mysticism, and ritual.

For Gathering the Chesapeake, Windham used flora and fauna specimens from the Chesapeake Bay, collected by Zach Gallery, the Academy Art Museum, and students from The Gunston School’s Chesapeake Bay Watershed Semester. Armed with these specimens, her research on growth zones and plant habitats, and open-source images from Google Earth, she conjured a place she had never visited: the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Zach Gallery is delighted to welcome Brett Day Windham to the Eastern Shore and present this body of work, as well as an opportunity for the community to engage personally with the artist and her process in a workshop at the Academy Art Museum in Easton.