Lisa Edelstein: In The Den, Paintings At Anat Ebgi – Wilshire, Los Angeles

Last December, I got to visit Lisa Edelstein in her home studio and profile her on the occasion of her first art exhibition in New York. Now, she is having her first exhibition in LA, at Anat Ebgi Gallery on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, September 16-October 28, 2023.

There were many aspects of her painting that I liked, not the least of which was the subject material, which was based on old photographs that showed family members and friends that communicated a particular time and place – East Coast Jewish suburban existence of a time and of a kind that seems to no longer exist, rendered in a very painterly fashion that paid attention to the geometry, patterns and colors at play in the works. There was something about Edelstein’s work that reminded me of Leon Kossoff’s paintings of his parents.

Beyond that, I was impressed by Edelstein herself, who has lived the life of a creative artist since she was a teenager, as a dancer for the New Jersey Generals, as the New York City club kid, Lisa E. profiled at age 20 in the New York Times by Maureen Dowd, as an AIDS activist, playwright and performer in New York, as an actress in both sitcoms, and dramas, most notably as Dr. Lisa Cuddy on House, Abby McCarthy in Girlfriends Guide to Divorce and Phoebe, Alan Arkin’s wayward daughter on The Kominsky Method among other continuing roles, and as a self-taught novice painter whose work was compelling even as it was evolving.

You can read my original article here, which won the LA Press Club’s Southern California Journalism Award for best personality profile in 2022.

But don’t just take my word for it. Go see her paintings for yourself. I think you’ll be as impressed as I was.