Leah Oates has a B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design, a M.F.A from The School of the Art Institute in Chicago and is a Fulbright Fellow for graduate study at The Edinburgh College of Art in Edinburgh, Scotland. She was born in Boston, MA and currently resides and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Oatesı work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the United States and abroad. Oates has had twelve solo shows at galleries, non-profits and university galleries nationally and has shown her work nationally and internationally in over one hundred group exhibitions. Her most recent solo show called ³Transitory Space² was exhibited at A4L Gallery in New York, NY in 2006. From 2002 to 2004 her ³PARADURA² series proved to be solo show worthy of seven venues that included, Sara Nightingale Gallery in Watermill, NY; A Taste of Art Gallery in New York, NY; Henry Street Settlement in New York, NY; Real Artways-Real Room in Hartford, CT; Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, IL; and the Sol Mednick Gallery at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA.
In 2007-08 Oates has upcoming exhibitions in The New York City area at Salon 177, The Commons Gallery at NYU, Patricia Laligant Photography, NURTUREart Gallery, Gallery Aferro, B.J Spoke Gallery, and The Arcade Gallery. Oates will be part of residency programs in 2008 in Newfoundland, Canada and Beijing, China.
In 2007, Oates has been part of over twenty six group exhibitions at venues in New York such at The International Resource Center Gallery, Metropolitan Pavilion Gallery, Hudson Union, The Arcade Gallery, About Glamour Gallery, The New Jersey Center for the Visual Arts, The University of West Florida Art Gallery, Artspace in New Haven, Connecticut, The Housatonic Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut, The Turku City Art Museum in Finland, Circle Gallery in Maryland, UMC Art Gallery at the University of Colorado and Spin Gallery in Toronto, Canada. Oates is featured online in the exhibit Horror Vacui in Drain Magazine. In 2007, Oates was awarded an artist residencies at the Ragdale Foundation in Illinois.
In 2006, Oates was part of approximately forty group shows in New York City and nationally that included Peer Gallery, Proteus Gowanus, Nurture Art Gallery, About Glamour Gallery, Flux Factory, Brad Cooper Gallery in Florida, Island Arts Center in Rhode Island, Chicago Cultural Center in Illinois, Axis Gallery in California and Rosalux Gallery in Minnesota. Abroad, Oates was part of group exhibitions at Noosa Regional Art Gallery in Australia, Eye Level Gallery in Canada, Paintworks Gallery and the Swinton Art Center in England, and Kaunas Photo Days in Lithuania. In 2005, Oates was part of group shows nationally and internationally at Kiana Malekzadeh Gallery in New York, Alpan Gallery in New Jersey, Florida State University Gallery, The Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center in Ohio, The Elaine J. Jacobs Gallery at Wayne State University in Michigan, Fraser Art Gallery in Maryland, Picture House Centre for Photography & The University College of Northampton Art Gallery in England. In 2006, Oates participated in a group show called ³Logistics of Space² at the Pool Art Fair in Miami Beach, Florida curated by Joyce Manalo. Her work has been shown in several New York based arts fairs including Photo NY 2006 with Peer Gallery and AAF Contemporary Art Fair 2006 and 2005 with A Taste of Art Gallery.
In addition her works on paper are in numerous public collections including The Tate, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The MoMA Franklin Furnace Archive, The Victoria & Albert, The Walker Art Center, Kohler Art Library, Getty Research Institute, The British Library, The National Museum of Women in the Arts & The Yale University Arts Library. Oatesıs photography has been featured in several films including ³The Forgotten² staring Julianne Moore, ³Little Children² with Kate Winslett and Jennifer Connelly, and in the upcoming film, ³Perfect Strangers² staring Halle Berry and Bruce Willis. In 2007 Oatesıs work will be featured on the sets of TV pilot ³Lipstick Jungle² by Candance Bushnell of ³Sex and the City² fame and staring Brooke Shield and on the sets of TV pilot ³Canterburyıs Law² starring Julianne Margulies. Her work is in Julianne Mooreıs private collection as well as the private collections of Mark Waskow, Susan Bode-Tyson, Bill Groom, Laurence Asseraf, and Natalie Domchencho.
Leah Oates is the recipient of numerous awards and honors that include, an Independent Artistıs Project Grant from Artists Space in New York, a Community Arts Assistance Grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and an honorable mention for the Hey Hot Shot Show at Jen Beckman Gallery in New York, NY. Oates has participated in artist residencies at Ragdale Foundation in Illinois, Caldera Foundation in Oregon, Taipei International Artists Village in Taiwan and The Pouch Cove Foundation in Newfoundland, Canada.