Robert Russell and Lisa Edelstein: A Palace in Time

_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.