Meredith Leich (b. 1986) works across painting, photography, animation, video, and installation. She explores our relationship with our environments, history, and changing climate, through research, intuitive visual exploration, and collaboration with scientists, fellow artists, and landscapes. Meredith received her BA from Swarthmore College and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she also lectured in the Film, Video, New Media, and Animation department. She has completed residencies at the Tide Institute and Museum of Art, Nes Artist Residency, Studios of Key West, the Ragdale Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Wrangell Mountain Center, among others. Meredith is the Co-Director of the Cuttyhunk Island Artists’ Residency and works as a consultant, graphic designer, and video editor to other artists, small businesses, and non-profits through northlightworks.com. Meredith is tickled that her art studio is now in her hometown of Arlington, MA, after many years away.
Artist Statement
If I lived in another time, I would be a landscape painter.
As is, when I look over a landscape, I cannot filter out my knowledge of the unfolding climate crisis and destruction of ecosystems. At the same time, I am fascinated by the mechanics of the natural world and the ongoing scientific discoveries that reveal unknown realms.
Over the last five years, I have been developing hand-drawn and digital animations not of, but for landscapes. At twilight (or during an eclipse), I project these white-light animations back onto landscapes, echoing the internal projection that accompanies – or interferes with – encountering nature. Through abstracted visuals, the animations seek to evoke past and future timescales. When I gaze at glaciers, I envision their ongoing disappearance; I also marvel at their centuries of formation. The “Illuminations” photographs document these animated projections, as a record of the uncanny experience of living through this time.
Instagram: @mer_like
Personal website
images of work
