By Laura Eckstein Jones By Laura Eckstein Jones | November 16, 2023 | People, Art, People Feature,
Lisa Edelstein’s slice-of-life paintings reveal another side of her all-encompassing artistry.
Edelstein stands beside “Matriarchs of Brooklyn” (2022, watercolor and pencil on paper), a piece included in her SFA Advisory exhibition in New York. PHOTO BY HOLLAND CLEMENT
It goes without saying that the pandemic pushed many of us out of our comfort zones. For L.A.-based Lisa Edelstein, lockdown brought out another side to her—something that, in the not-so-recent past, invoked fear. “I’ve been drawing my whole life, but it was always something I did for myself. There’s a great vulnerability when you share things you’ve made,” says Edelstein, best known for her roles in House, Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce and more.
Lisa Edelstein’s “Den” (2023, watercolor and pencil on paper) and “Sunny Day” (2023, watercolor and pencil on paper) were recently shown at Anat Ebgi Gallery in Los Angeles. “DEN” (2023, 40 X 60 INCHES, WATERCOLOR AND PENCIL ON PAPER)
But lockdown provided Edelstein the time and space she needed to draw and paint, finding newfound confidence along the way. “I’d work on things for hours and hours, giving myself permission to really focus. My drawings became paintings with first marker, then ink, then watercolor, and I’ve never looked back,” she says. “It feels like an extension of what I’ve always been doing—storytelling.”
“SUNNY DAY” (2023, 19.5 X 15 INCHES, WATERCOLOR AND PENCIL ON PAPER)
The Den, a recent show at Anat Ebgi’s Wilshire Blvd. gallery showcased Edelstein’s latest pieces, watercolor and pencil creations based on old photographs and stills from family movies. Although the works feature Edelstein’s own family, “you don’t need to know the people in the paintings, because you recognize them as human beings,” she says. “I love discovering details in the grainy old photos and film stills, discovering secret cigarettes, gestures, glares… They aren’t necessarily the images one would have put in a photo album; they’re the mistakes, the asides, the caught moments that are so much more honest to me.”
Something particularly timely about Edelstein’s artwork is its representation of Jewishness. “We are a people that is both extremely visible as a minority group and yet simultaneously dismissed as being one,” she explains. “And right now, especially right now, it feels radical to put a yarmulke in a painting. But it’s important. Representation helps us recognize each other, humanize each other, and remember we are all in it together.”
Edelstein’s work is currently on view in Rebuilding Bridges, a group show curated by Megan Steinman, founding director of The Underground Museum, at Spago through Feb. 1. She also stars in a recently released PBS series called Little Bird and will appear in a SAG-AFTRA interim-agreement-approved indie film that’s currently in post-production.
“I’m incredibly grateful that I can do things that transport me out of the normal stresses of everyday life,” Edelstein shares. “I love to work, I love to hyper-focus, I love to dive into my imagination. What a blessing it is, that, as an adult, all these things could be parts of how I make a living and move through the world.”
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