Sam Leach (artist)

Sam Leach
Born1973 (age 50–51)
Adelaide, South Australia
NationalityAustralian
Known forPainting
AwardsArchibald Prize
2010 Tim Minchin

Wynne Prize
2010 Proposal for landscaped cosmos
Websitewww.samleach.net
Boatmen Moored on the Shore of an Italian Lake, by Pynacker, which served as inspiration in 2010

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.[1] Leach currently resides in Melbourne. Leach's work has been exhibited in several museum shows including "Optimism" at the Queensland Art Gallery[2] and "Neo Goth" at the University of Queensland Art Museum[3] in 2008, in 2009 "the Shilo Project" at the Ian Potter Museum of Art [4] and "Horror Come Darkness" at the Macquarie University Art Gallery [5] and "Still" at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery in 2010.[6] 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.[7] In the same year, he won the Wynne Prize for his landscape Proposal for landscaped cosmos.[8] 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 [9] due to the similarities, acknowledged by Leach, between his work [10] and one by seventeenth-century Dutch artist Adam Pynacker.[11]

  1. ^ Sam nets a Wynne with Archibald Archived 9 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine - RMIT News, 12 April 2010
  2. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 3 October 2009. Retrieved 13 July 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ^ "Neo goth: Back in black - UQ Art Museum - the University of Queensland, Australia". Archived from the original on 1 March 2011. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  4. ^ "Ian Potter Museum of Art" (PDF). www.art-museum.unimelb.edu.au. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  5. ^ "Macquarie University Art Gallery". www.artgallery.mq.edu.au. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  6. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 13 July 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. ^ Sam Leach wins Archibald prize, The Age, 26 March 2010.
  8. ^ Artist notches up prestigious double, SBS News, 26 March 2010.
  9. ^ Coslovich, Gabriella (14 April 2010). "Genius or copycat?". The Age. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  10. ^ "Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2018 :: Art Gallery NSW". www.thearchibaldprize.com.au. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  11. ^ "Schippers met boten - Rijksmuseum Amsterdam - Museum voor Kunst en Geschiedenis". www.rijksmuseum.nl. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011.