The passionate artist will hold his first solo New York City exhibition in the art district of Chelsea in June.

The exhibition is aptly titled My Australia and includes beautiful images of Maitland, Newcastle and the Hunter Valley.

“I want to show my Australia, not the Sydney Harbour Bridge or the Opera House, but my Australia,” Lechner said.

The exhibition started as a pie in the sky dream to showcase his works in America.

Lechner flew over to the US last year and held mini shows in New York City and Philadelphia to test the market. 

When he returned to Australia, he had two gallery offers and his dream was to become a reality.

“Having the exhibition in a Chelsea gallery is a level of recognition you don’t get from other places,” he said.

“I always say I am conquering the world from Maitland.

“First Maitland, then Paris, then New York, but when I open my gallery it will be in the High Street.”

It was Lechner’s ties with a Rutherford and Maitland group, Business Networking International, that helped to secure the overseas gig.

When on his networking trip last year he met other artists in the business network and ended up in talks with a curator and a framer.

Lechner does all his printing locally, but has the artworks framed at the location of the exhibition to make shipping easier.

He calls them artworks rather than photographs because he does not snap the images and print to photographic paper.

Instead he prints onto a textured heavy cotton paper which blurs the lines between photography and painting.

“It has a very velvety appearance,” Lechner said.

“I have people ask whether it’s a photo or a painting.

“To have that line blurred, I love that.”

Lechner’s New York exhibition starts on June 2 and runs for a month.