Skirball Cultural Center

Robert Russell and Lisa Edelstein: A Palace in Time invites visitors to reflect on how they spend their time–in the moments when they are celebrating, grieving, and all the small moments in between . Drawing inspiration from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s description of the Sabbath as “a palace in time,” this exhibition brings together new paintings by Los Angeles-based artists and married partners Russell and Edelstein that hold up moments and memories of joy and loss–ever-present in Jewish family traditions and community gatherings.

Robert Russell’s luminous still lifes portray Jewish ritual objects—Kiddush cups and yahrzeit candles—removed from their context and histories. Painted in his signature soft-focus style, the works shimmer with beauty while resonating with absence. They prompt reflection on what is remembered, what is lost, and how cultural traditions endures.

In dialogue, Lisa Edelstein presents paintings inspired by her own family photographs, capturing scenes of Jewish domestic life in 1970s suburban New Jersey. Her portraits of multigenerational gatherings, richly patterned interiors, and fleeting moments of affection evoke a tender meditation on diaspora, belonging, and the small rituals that shape identity.

Together, Russell and Edelstein offer a moving portrait of Jewish life—private and communal, sacred and ordinary, past and present—that is transformed through the act of witness, reflection, and celebration. The exhibition becomes a contemporary “palace in time” where memory, ritual, and intimacy coexist.

This exhibition is organized by the Skirball Cultural Center Curator Vicki Phung Smith.

Robert Russell (b. 1971, Kansas City, MO) is a conceptual painter whose work returns to ideas of memory, iconography, and mortality in a personal painting language that treats ordinary objects—cups, books, figurines, candles— as vessels of history and ritual. Working in a subdued palette and precise contemplative approach, he explores how images can be sanctified by attention: how repetition, gesture, and witness can transform the mass-produced form into a site of devotion. Russell completed his MFA at the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA and his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. He has had solo exhibitions at galleries including Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles; The Cabin, Los Angeles; Burrard Arts Foundation, Vancouver, B.C., Canada; LAXART (currently The Brick), Los Angeles; François Ghebaly, Los Angeles; Big Pond Artworks, Munich, Germany; and OSMOS Station, Stamford, NY. His work has been exhibited in group shows including Roberts Projects, Los Angeles; MATERIAL Press MOCA LA, Los Angeles; M+B, Los Angeles; Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles; Vielmetter Los Angeles; and GAVLAK, Palm Beach, FL. Russell lives and works in Los Angeles.

Photo by Chad Unger.

Lisa Edelstein (b. 1966, Boston, MA) mines images inspired by her own Jewish family history, transforming discarded snap shots into colorful paintings of a fading past. Largely unposed and caught off-guard, Edelstein’s compositions connect her interest in storytelling across various avenues of her artistic practice—painting, writing, and acting. Her intimate works are filled with tenderness as they transport the viewer to a different time and the jumble of personalities and physical spaces that bring a family to life. Through the lens of both the female and Jewish gaze, the artist draws you in, welcoming you into her family while also holding a mirror up to your own. Edelstein studied experimental theatre at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts before leaving to work as an actress, writer, and filmmaker, eventually expanding her practice to painting. Her work has been exhibited at Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles; Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles; A Hug From the Art World, New York; SFA Projects, New York; GAVLAK, New York and Palm Beach, FL; and VSG Contemporary, Chicago. Her work is included in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Edelstein lives and works in Los Angeles and is represented by Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles.

Photo by Holland Clement.