The Langlais Art Preserve is exhibiting Forest Geometries, a site-specific installation by Massachusetts-based interdisciplinary artist and woodworker Gina Siepel. Consisting of five large-scale sculptures sited along the 2.3-mile Langlais Woodland Trail, the project is the culmination of Siepel’s year-long creative engagement with the Preserve, including several periods in residence.

Forest Geometries engages with both the dynamic ecology of the Langlais Preserve forest and artist Bernard Langlais’s legacy as a maker of outdoor sculpture from found wood. Using deadfall balsam fir and red spruce saplings gathered from the forest, Siepel has constructed large-scale open form sculptures of the five Platonic polyhedra—geometric forms consisting of identical faces meeting at identical angles. Associated since antiquity with the classical elements of fire, earth, air, water, and cosmos, Siepel’s works are sited in dialogue with their forest surroundings, drawing attention to both visible and invisible ecological forces. The project is accompanied by a hand-drawn, walking map–zine and an online gallery that documents the creation, siting, and seasonal transformations of the sculptures.

“As a sculptor, it’s been an exciting challenge to work with figure-ground relationships in the intensely activated visual, haptic, and sensorial space of the Langlais Preserve,” says Siepel. “I hope that this work will open opportunities for visitors to enter into new relationship to both the natural and cultural richness of this place.”

This project marks a milestone for the Langlais Art Preserve. Forest Geometries is the first contemporary sculpture installation at the site since the Preserve’s founding in 2017.

“We are thrilled to embark on a new chapter of artist engagement with the Preserve,” said Hannah Blunt, Director of the Langlais Art Preserve. “Forest Geometries reflects our vision for the Preserve to be a place that inspires wonder, curiosity, and care for nature through art—building on the legacy of creative place-making that Bernard Langlais undertook here in the late 1960s.”

Siepel’s sculptures will remain on view through spring 2026, intentionally left to shift and weather with the seasons and the natural transitions of the forest. Forest Geometries reflects new artist-led programming at the Langlais Art Preserve aimed to deepen public engagement with the ecology of the Georges River watershed. It has been made possible by the generous support of the Lunder Foundation and the Onion Foundation.

Artist Gina Siepel (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist and woodworker based in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Their practice integrates conceptual thinking, traditional craft, and ecological inquiry, often working with wood as both a natural and cultural material. Siepel’s work has been shown at the Colby College Museum of Art, the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, and the Museum for Art in Wood. Forest Geometries is their first outdoor, site-specific installation.

About the Langlais Art Preserve

Owned and operated by Georges River Land Trust, the Langlais Art Preserve encompasses the homestead and outdoor art environment of Maine sculptor Bernard Langlais (1921–1977) in Cushing, Maine. With over a dozen extant wood sculptures by the artist and over 80 acres of undeveloped conservation land, including 2.3-miles of woodland hiking trails, as well as a robust program of family nature walks and creative workshops, the preserve is a unique destination for art and nature experiences for all ages.

About Georges River Land Trust

The Langlais Art Preserve is protected by Georges River Land Trust, a nonprofit conservation organization serving communities in the 225-square-mile Georges River watershed in Midcoast, Maine. Since 1987, GRLT has permanently conserved more than 4,000 acres of forest, farm, and shoreline, and provides over 60 miles of public trails across midcoast Maine.