Leach’s work has been shown has in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Australia and worldwide. Leach's work has been exhibited in several museum shows includingOptimism at the Queensland Art Gallery and Neo Goth at the the University of Queensland Art Museum, 2012 reimagining the future at RMIT gallery, the Shilo Project at the Ian Potter Museum of Art and Horror Come Darkness at the Macquarie University Art Gallery in Australia and abroad. Recent solo exhibitions include The Ecstasy of Infrastructure, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 2011, and We have never been modern at the Hong Kong Art Fair and The Civilising Process at Volta Basel in 2012.

Leach has been the subject of considerable media attention, featuring on the front page of Melbourne’s Age newspaper, and in an ABC documentary about his work. Leach’s work has won several awards, including the Metro Prize and the Geelong Gallery prize in 2006, the Eutick Memorial Still Life award and the Siemens Art Prize and travelling scholarship in 2007 and both the Wynne and Archibald Prizes at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2010. Along with Ashley Crawford and Tony Lloyd leach established the biennial Notfair art fair.

His work is held in public collections of the Art Gallery of South Australia, the regional galleries of Geelong, Newcastle, Gold Coast, Coffs Harbour, and Gippsland and the collections of RMIT, the Latrobe University and University of Queensland.