James English Leary was born in 1982 in Chicago, Illinois. He received his BFA from The Cooper Union in New York, New York.

His recent solo and group exhibitions include "James English Leary | Small Fishes Swim Around Inside of Large Fishes" at Galerie Lisa Kandlhofer in Vienna, Austria (2019); "Orphans of Painting II" at Ethan Cohen in Beacon, New York (2019); "Flat Out: Drawings, 2000–2019" at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, New Jersey (2019); "Another Family Romance" at Galerie Lisa Kandlhofer in Vienna, Austria (2018); "Hoi Polloi" at Nathalie Karg Gallery in New York, New York (2018); "Half a Mississippi Steamboat" at Andersen's in Copenhagen, Denmark (2018); "The Bursting Grape" at Galerie Lisa Kandlhofer in Vienna, Austria (2017); and "André Azevedo & James English Leary" at SIM Galeria in Curitiba, Brazil (2017).

Leary was a recipient of the Tiffany Foundation Award and a resident at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in Captiva, Florida.

James English Leary lives and works in New York, New York, where he is an adjunct professor at The Cooper Union.