Leah Oates has a B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design, an M.F.A. from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is a Fulbright Fellow for graduate study at Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland. From 2018 to 2020 Oates was in groups shows in Toronto at The Gladstone Hotel, Gallery 1313, Propeller Gallery, Papermill Gallery, Arta Gallery and Wychwood Barns Community Gallery. Oates has had solo shows at Black Cat Artspace, Susan Eley Fine Art, The MTA Lightbox Project at 42nd Street, The Arsenal Gallery Central Park, The Center for Book Arts and Real Art Ways. Oates has been part of group shows at in NYC at Wave Hill Gyndor Gallery, Brooklyn Prospect Park, Nurture Art Gallery, Metaphor Contemporary Art, Denise Bibro Fine Art, The Pen and Brush, The Center for Book Arts and nationally at Bob Rauschenberg Gallery Florida, Unsettled Gallery New Mexico and at Nave Gallery Massachusetts.