The whip-poor-will is a nightjar native to North America distinguished by its repetitive, onomatopoeic song and camouflage coloring. Easily heard but difficult to see, the whip-poor-will is an apt metaphor for the work in Justine Kablack’s exhibition, named after the bird, at BUOY Gallery. Thick layers of lustrous graphite capture the aura of long winter nights in sparsely populated woodland landscapes and delicate renderings of local flora and fauna. Sam Finkelstein reports from the exhibition in Kittery, Maine, writing about the mystery and mysticism to uncover in the depths of Kablack’s work.

The content remains slightly obscured, some of it still hidden in darkness, leaving a sense that the drawings withhold an enigmatic higher truth. Tempering my impulse to decipher felt like part of an intended discovery process.