VITRINE EXHIBITION SERIES
AUG 7 – SEP 7, 2026
Amanda Lechner
Cohabitation Calamity!
“Cohabitation Calamity!” features paintings by artist Amanda Lechner. The exhibition includes mixed media paintings that the artist describes as “observation-engaged fiction”. Visual references in the paintings are informed by natural history, climate change, mythology, and the artist’s personal experiences. Together the images offer vignettes for reflection on how humans engage with the natural world in ways that are at once distant and intimate.
"I research and generate ideas, stories, composition in a way that is fluid, open-ended and exploratory - often a subject presents itself through the process of painting or drawing." — Amanda Lechner
Amanda Lechner is a visual artist and creative scholar that divides her time between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. Lechner's studio practice encompasses broad approaches to drawing and painting with a focus on the contemporary use of historical and handmade material like ink, egg-tempera and fresco. Lechner has exhibited painting, drawing and site-specific work throughout the United States. She attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2018 and has participated in artist residencies at the Penland School of Crafts, the Wassaic Project in New York and at Stove Works in Chattanooga, TN. Lechner holds the position of Fresco Instructor at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech’s School of Visual Art.
About the Work
In a time of unprecedented technological advancement, environmental destruction and changing communication I feel at once pushed to react and pulled inward to reflect. My paintings are works of research and observation-engaged fiction. Thematically I cite geology, habitat dissolution, planetary science, narratives of discovery, mythology, collections and lived experience. Elements in my imagery express joy and hope while others recognize the darkness and hubris in this human epoch. The works in egg tempera are meditations on touch, observation and imagined experience. My portable frescoes often utilize modern construction materials to enact the ancient processes and chemical bonds of buon fresco. I research and generate ideas, stories, composition in a way that is fluid, open-ended and exploratory - often a subject presents itself through the process of painting or drawing.