Sam Leach (artist)

Sam Leach (born 1973) is an Australian contemporary artist. He was born in Adelaide, South Australia. Leach worked for many years in the Australian Tax Office after completion of a degree in Economics. He also completed a Diploma of Art, Bachelor of Fine Art degree and a Master of Fine Art degree at RMIT in Melbourne, Victoria. Leach currently resides in Melbourne. Leach's work has been exhibited in several museum shows including "Optimism" at the Queensland Art Gallery and "Neo Goth" at the University of Queensland Art Museum in 2008, in 2009 "the Shilo Project" at the Ian Potter Museum of Art and "Horror Come Darkness" at the Macquarie University Art Gallery and "Still" at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery in 2010. His work is held in public collections of regional galleries of Geelong, Gold Coast, Coffs Harbour, Newcastle and Gippsland and the collections of La Trobe University and the University of Queensland.

His portrait of musical comedian Tim Minchin won the Archibald Prize, one of Australia's most noteworthy art prizes, in 2010. In the same year, he won the Wynne Prize for his landscape Proposal for landscaped cosmos. In doing so he became only the third artist after William Dobell and Brett Whiteley to win the Archibald portrait prize and the Wynne landscape prize in the same year. The award has generated some controversy due to the similarities, acknowledged by Leach, between his work and one by seventeenth-century Dutch artist Adam Pynacker.

Awards and prizes

 * 2024 Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, finalist
 * 2010 Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, winner
 * 2010 Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, winner
 * 2010 RMIT Alumnus of the Year Award, RMIT University, Melbourne
 * 2009 Eutick Memorial Still Life Award, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, Coffs Harbour, finalist
 * 2009 Royal Bank of Scotland Emerging Artist Award, Sydney, finalist
 * 2009 University of Queensland Self Portrait Prize, Brisbane, finalist
 * 2009 Arthur Guy Memorial Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, finalist
 * 2009 Waterhouse Natural History Prize, South Australian Museum, Adelaide, finalist
 * 2009 Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, finalist
 * 2008 Stan and Maureen Duke Gold Coast Art Prize, Gold Coast City Gallery, Gold Coast, finalist
 * 2008 Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize, South Australian Museum, Adelaide, commendation
 * 2008 Fleurieu Biennale, Art of Food and Wine and Water Prize, McLaren Vale, winner
 * 2008 ABN Amro Emerging Artist Award, Sydney, finalist
 * 2008 Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, finalist
 * 2007 Siemens Fine Art Award, RMIT University, Melbourne, winner
 * 2007 Eutick Memorial Still Life Award, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, Coffs Harbour, finalist
 * 2007 Stan and Maureen Duke, Gold Coast Art Prize, Gold Coast City Gallery, Gold Coast, finalist
 * 2007 Metro5 Art Award, Metro Gallery, Melbourne, finalist
 * 2007 Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, finalist
 * 2006 Fletcher Jones Contemporary Art Prize, Geelong Gallery, Art Geelong, winner
 * 2006 Metro5 Art Award, Metro Gallery, Melbourne, winner
 * 2005 Siemens Fine Art Award, RMIT University, Melbourne, finalist
 * 2004 Siemens Fine Art Award, RMIT University, Melbourne, finalist

Collections
Leach's work features in several collections including
 * Artbank
 * Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
 * Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, Coffs Harbour
 * Christ Church Grammar School, Perth
 * Geelong Art Gallery, Geelong
 * Gippsland Art Gallery, Victoria
 * Gold Coast City Gallery, Gold Coast
 * La Trobe University Museum of Art, Melbourne
 * Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
 * Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle
 * Peggy Scott and David Teplitzky Collection, Wellington, New Zealand
 * RMIT University, Melbourne
 * University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane
 * Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo

Solo exhibitions
Leach's work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions.
 * 2014 Theriophily and Substance, ART14 London
 * 2013 Careening Meteorites and the Early Mind, Future Perfect, Singapore
 * 2013 Sam Leach, Future Perfect, Singapore
 * 2013 Dymaxion, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney
 * 2012 The Civilising Process, VOLTA8, Sullivan+Strumpf, Basel, Switzerland
 * 2011-12 Sam Leach: The Ecstasy of Infrastructure, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville
 * 2011 We Have Never Been Modern, ARTHK11, Sullivan+Strumpf, Asia One, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
 * 2010 Present at Hand, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney
 * 2010 Platonia, COMODAA, London, UK
 * 2010 Cosmists, 24HR ART, Northern Territory Centre for Contemporary Art, Darwin
 * 2009 The Next Billion Years, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney
 * 2009 The Margin, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne
 * 2009 Native Dualism, Peter Walker Fine Art, Adelaide
 * 2008 Holotypes, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne
 * 2008 Negentrophies, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney
 * 2007 Unnatural Selection, Peter Walker Fine Art, Adelaide
 * 2007 The Spoils, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne
 * 2006 Familie Kapitaal, Michael Carr Gallery, Sydney
 * 2005 The Lift, Spacement, Melbourne
 * 2005 The Longed for Departure, Bus Gallery, Melbourne

Group exhibitions
Leach's work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions. Melbourne
 * 2015 10th Anniversary Group Show, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney
 * 2014 Conquest of Space, COFA Galleries, Sydney, curated by Dr. Andrew Frost
 * 2014 Art Basel Hong Kong, Sullivan+Strumpf, Hong Kong
 * 2014 The Medium is the Message, La Trobe University Museum of Art, Victoria
 * 2014 SSFA14, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney
 * 2013 Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
 * 2013 Australia: Contemporary Voices, The Fine Art Society Contemporary, London, UK
 * 2013 SkyLab, La Trobe Regional Gallery, Victoria
 * 2013 New Horizons, Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale
 * 2013 Wonderworks, Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong
 * 2012 Haunts and Follies, Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
 * 2012 Animal/Human, University of Queensland Art Museum, University of Queensland, Brisbane
 * 2012 Lie of the Land: New Australian Landscapes, Embassy of Australia, Washington DC, USA
 * 2011 Imagining the Future, RMIT Gallery, RMIT University, Melbourne
 * 2011 Unknown Pleasures, Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale
 * 2011 The Rapture of Death, Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale
 * 2011 The New Arcadia, Lismore Regional Gallery, Lismore
 * 2011 First Life Residency in Landscape, Xin Dong Cheng Space for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
 * 2011 Together in Harmony, Korean Foundation Cultural Centre, Seoul, South Korea
 * 2011 SSFA11, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney
 * 2011 Art Stage Singapore, Sullivan+Strumpf, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
 * 2010 ARTHK10, Sullivan+Strump, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
 * 2010 SSFA10, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney
 * 2010 Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
 * 2010 Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
 * 2009 Horror – Come Darkness, Macquarie University Art Gallery, Sydney
 * 2009 The Shilo Project, Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Melbourne and touring
 * 2009 Nature ID, Jan Manton Gallery, Brisbane
 * 2009 Australia Now, Bedfordbury Gallery, London, UK
 * 2009 Surveying the Field, Moreland City Art Gallery, Melbourne
 * 2009 Mute Relics and Bedevilled Creatures – Constructing an Antipodean Curio Cabinet, Moreland City Art Gallery,
 * 2009 SSFA09, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney
 * 2008 Contemporary Australia: Optimism, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
 * 2008 The Year of the Bird, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Sydney
 * 2008 Heat: Art and Climate Change, RMIT Gallery, RMIT University, Melbourne
 * 2008 Neo Goth: Back in Black, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane
 * 2008 Melbourne Art Fair, Sullivan+Strumpf, Royal Exhibition Centre, Melbourne
 * 2008 Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
 * 2008 SSFA08, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney
 * 2008 Bal Tashchit: Thou Shalt Not Destroy – The Environment in Biblical and Rabbinic Sources, Jewish Museum of Australia, Melbourne
 * 2007 Momento Mori, Blkmrkt, Brisbane
 * 2007 Sincerity of Detail, Wardlow Studios, Melbourne
 * 2007 Metro 5 Finalists, Metro Gallery, Melbourne
 * 2007 Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
 * 2006 Metro 5 Finalists, Metro Gallery, Melbourne
 * 2006 Melbourne Reign, Michael Carr Gallery, Sydney
 * 2004 RMIT Honours Graduate Show, Area Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne
 * 2004 8, RMIT Gallery, RMIT University, Melbourne
 * 2004 Melbourne Commonwealth Games Village, Melbourne
 * 2003 Thread, RMIT Graduate Show, Melbourne