KIGEL image
“Swim Beach” by Jean Kigel.

Craignair Gallery in Spruce Head will present a group exhibition featuring Jean Kigel, Susan Lewis Baines, Karin Strong, Thia Hamilton and Gwen Sylvester from Aug. 26 to Sept. 29.

The five artists will offer their interpretations of the popular Clark Island Preserve. Kigel’s geometric realist oil paintings explore the island’s granite industry history through the scattered remnants it left behind. She approaches the Clark Island landscape much as a faceted gem transforms light, breaking it into geometric forms of rendered simplicity. Familiar colors, forms and details appear through a lens of abstraction.

The Clark Island Quarry opened around 1870. By 1905, it measured 500 by 300 feet and reached a maximum depth of 50 feet. Granite traveled by horse power along a 1,200-foot track to the wharf and was used in buildings including post offices in Hartford, Connecticut, and Buffalo, New York, as well as the Standard Oil Building in New York City. The quarry eventually closed as cement and asphalt increasingly replaced granite as building materials.

An opening reception will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Aug. 26, when the public can meet the artists and enjoy hors d’oeuvres prepared by chef Gil Plaster.

The exhibition will be open daily through Sept. 29. For more information, go to jeankigel.com.