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 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