Australian artist Sam Leach is a painter with an already impressive list of accolades, whose works are highly sought-after. Having won the prestigious Archibald prize in 2009, and then again in 2010 in addition to winning the Wynne, Leach has continued to chart a successful course in his practice, cementing himself as one of the country’s most celebrated artists today.
Leach’s precise and luxurious oil paintings, executed in meticulous detail and encased in resin, thematically and stylistically draw upon the tradition of 17th century Dutch painting. In an ongoing investigation, Leach re-contextualises past histories of the progression of technology to explore the relationship between animals and technology, and the subsequent affect of scientific developments on the human and non-human bond.
Fascinated with the notion that painting can be used to deepen our understanding of how the history of modern science has changed relationships between humans and the non-human world, Leach charts philosophical territory to unearth these curiosities in his new form of history painting. Founding his own techniques and aesthetics in centuries-old still life traditions, observing animals, landscape and golden-age panorama, Leach’s fabulously refined and often quirky images act as both social commentary and art objects. His own developmental painterly explorations are mirrored by his absorption of new scientific discoveries and technologies which by their development nature are able to change our understanding of the world and what it means to be human.
Sam Leach, born Adelaide 1973, completed a Bachelor of Economics at Adelaide University, in 1993. In 2004 he graduated from RMIT University in Melbourne with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) and later completed a Master of Arts (Fine Arts) in 2009. He is currently completing a PHD in Fine Art.
In 2010 Leach won both Wynne and Archibald Prizes at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. He was a finalist for the Royal Bank of Scotland Emerging Artist Award in 2009. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include The Ecstasy of Infrastructure, TarraWarra Museum of Art, VIC, 2011 and Cosmists, 24HR ART, Northern Territory of Contemporary Art, Darwin (2010). Leach was recently included in a group show 2112 Imagining the Future, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne and at Xin Dong Cheng Space for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2011). Other shows include Neo Goth: Back in Black, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane (2008), Contemporary Australia: Optimism, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2008) and Horror – Come Darkness, Macquarie University Art Gallery, Sydney (2009).
