In Gallery I, Goldfinch is pleased to announce ordinary awe, a solo exhibition by Leslie Baum featuring new paintings and watercolor drawings from Baum’s ongoing plein air painting series, in which the artist invites other people—artists and non-artists alike—to paint outdoors with her, side by side. These “painting dates” and the social connections they forge have become intrinsic to the Chicago-based artist’s practice; more than 150 of these dates have been archived on Baum’s Plein Air Archive.

The title ordinary awe derives from Baum’s understanding of her approach to painting as “a dance with awe”—a sense of wonder and humility at “the fragile poetry” involved in bringing a painting into being. “The work of this exhibition holds many awe-filled encounters,” Baum notes. “It reflects an array of still-resonating interpersonal exchanges, moments of deep observation, and the complexity of that studio conversation between myself and the object or image I am painting, or more accurately that we, object/image and I are making in concert.”

Baum’s attuned engagement with nature, with other people, and with the sublime highs and lows of the painting process informs what is a radically inclusive and profoundly generous practice; it also offers a gentle corrective to still-common Modernist notions of the painter as a solitary figure engaged in a purely solipsistic relation to the canvas before them. Baum explicitly acknowledges the ways in which what she paints is partly shaped by forces outside of her self—other people, nature—and indeed, the titles of her plein air paintings always include the initials of the painting partner with whom she shared the date.

The painting dates that informed the paintings exhibited in ordinary awe are as follows:

Arnold Kemp, Garfield Park Conservatory, 10.6.2023

Sharon Lind, Red Clover Ranch Wisconsin, 8.9.2023

Annie Coleman, Kickapoo Valley Reserve, 8.6.2023

Tyler Vlahovich, Arroyo Seco, LA, 5. 10.2022

Anne Stevens, Humboldt Park, 9.4.2022

Ariel Wood, Portland, Maine 8.12.22

Dan Gunn, Maine, 8.10.2022

Christy Matson, Hahamongna LA, 5 3.2022

Elliot Bergman, suburban Illinois, 7.20.2022

Soumya Netrabile, Montrose Bird Sanctuary IL, 7.13.2022

Corrie Slawson, Monte Castello di Vibio Italy, 6.19.2022

Alex Harvey, Maine, 9.11.2021

Gwen Zabicki, Humboldt Park, 6.24.2021

Melissa Oresky, Merwin Preserve IL, 5.6.2021

Samantha Bittman, Garfield Park Conservatory, 7.23.2019

Leslie Baum: ordinary awe is on view from March 9 – April 20th and will afford numerous opportunities for audiences to engage with the artist. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, March 9th from 2-5pm; on Friday, April 12th, from 5-7pm, Goldfinch will host an evening “Meet and Greet” with exhibiting artists Leslie Baum and Andreas Fischer in conjunction with Expo Art Week’s “Art After Hours;” and on Saturday, April 13th at 2pm, Justin Witte, Director and Curator of Cleve Carney Museum of Art at College of DuPage, will moderate a conversation on painting with Leslie Baum and Andreas Fischer. All events are free and open to the public.

Artist’s Bio

Leslie Baum’s painting practice is invitational in nature and informed by her long tenure as museum educator at the Art Institute of Chicago. Baum received her BA from the University of Vermont and studied abroad at the Glasgow School of Art. Her drawings and paintings are in permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Elmhurst Art Museum. Baum’s exhibitions have been reviewed extensively, including in Artforum, Art in America, Hyperallergic, New City, and the Chicago Tribune. She received residencies at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, the Nido project in Monte Castello di Vibio Italy, Yaddo, and the Vermont Studio Center. A 2020 DCASE grant funded the creation of pleinairarchive.com, a site documenting her ongoing painting social practice. In 2023, Baum was named one of 50 key members of Chicago’s art scene by New City magazine.

Recent solo exhibitions include for IRIS and Other Flowers, Compound Yellow, Chicago (2023); The Plein Air Project, Wege Center, Maharishi International University, Fairfield, IA (2022 ); An Instrument in the Shape of A Woman, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago (2022 ); and A Garden in a Vase, the Drawing Room at The Arts Club of Chicago (2022 ). Participation in recent group exhibitions includes Friendship’s Death, Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago (2023 ); Nido, organized by Michelle Grabner, Monte Castello Di Vibio, Italy (2022); Wheel of Life, organized by Scott Wolniak, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago (2022); and Plain Air, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago (2021).

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