Lisa Edelstein's “Corky” Acquired by LACMA

Lisa Edelstein, Corky, Watercolor on paper/dibond, 22.5 x 32 inches, 2024. Photo: Yubo Dong. Photo: Yubo Dong

Charlie James Gallery is proud to announce the acquisition of Lisa Edelstein's Corky by LACMA.

The gallery wishes to thank Britt Salvesen and the LACMA staff for their support of Lisa Edelstein and her work.

Lisa Edelstein mines her own family history in works that transform vintage photographs into compositions that acutely capture the color and texture of the moment in time they were taken. The images are candid, the figures largely unposed and caught off-guard, implying action on either side of the frozen moment depicted. Edelstein’s interest in storytelling arises across the various avenues of her artistic practice, including painting, writing, and acting. Edelstein’s paintings are deeply rooted in the Jewish diasporic experience of growing up within a multigenerational family whose elders fled violence and discrimination to find success in the new world. The lush surroundings of her paintings – designed interiors, new cars, dance lessons – signal a flourishing made possible by this new start in America, while also firmly rejecting the deprivations of wartime Europe that hover in the recent past.