The Museum’s first major open call exhibition invited Jewish-identifying artists in California to submit artworks in response to a central question: How are artists looking to the many aspects of Jewish culture, identity, and community to foster, reimagine, hold, or discover connection? The resulting exhibition brings together the work of forty-seven artists reflecting on their connection to Judaism, the world, and their own history. Through a wide range of media, including paintings, sculptures, interactive video games, video works, photographs, and more, the California Jewish Open illustrates some of the myriad ways in which these artists’ Jewish identity informs their connection to the world at large—and offers a window into the universal human need for connection in all its complexity.

Transdisciplinary artist Nicki Green’s first museum solo exhibition delves into questions of identity, transformation, and reinvention of Jewish traditions through new and existing artworks in ceramic, installation, fiber, and more. Inspired by the concept of the firmament—a dividing form referenced in the Torah that separated the earth from the heavens—Green reimagines the gallery space as an environment of welcome and liberation centering trans and nonbinary bodies. Artworks rendered primarily in clay feature motifs that invoke fermentation, mycelium, and reinvented ritual as metaphors for regeneration, transformation, and resilience—concepts that have informed Jewish thinking and practice for thousands of years. By reclaiming parts of her Jewish upbringing, reinventing functional forms of ceramic objects, and reimagining ways of embracing different genders and sexualities, Green challenges and expands the binary limits of our society. 

Marking the first time the space has been activated in this way since the building’s opening, Bay Area artist Leah Rosenberg transforms The CJM’s Yud Gallery through light and color, creating a welcoming environment for visitors to reflect, rest, and wonder. In When One Sees a Rainbow, Rosenberg fills the gallery—a space itself created to celebrate light and its connection to Judaism—with new hues, exploring how the wondrous natural phenomenon of rainbows connects to our lives, light, and meditative practice. Inspired by the Jewish tradition of reciting a blessing upon seeing a rainbow, visitors will also be invited to create their own responses to the colors on view in the gallery. Enter a kaleidoscopic world of color and rediscover a familiar symbol of hope and awe.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum’s celebrated building, designed by world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, has served as an artistic, community, and cultural generator since its opening fifteen years ago. This exhibition delves into the deep symbolism imbued in The CJM’s iconic building. Inspired by the Hebrew phrase l’chaim (“to life”), used most often as a toast to mark moments of togetherness and celebration, the architecture of The CJM’s building embodies the values, traditions, and ideas The Museum explores within its walls. L'Chaim: Celebrating Our Building at 15 explores the multitude of symbols layered in the space we inhabit, unlocking the meaning behind its dynamic energy and allowing all who visit to experience the space anew.  

Uncovering powerful insights into the relationships between art, memory, politics, and loss, this multimedia installation reflects on the history of Polish-owned paintings stolen during the Nazi occupation in World War II. Initiated by Polish artist Dorota Mytych and created with painting collaborators Tracy Grubbs (San Francisco), Jessica Houston (Canada), and Marcia Teusink (UK), the installation features the four artists jointly recreating a total of fifty-nine looted artworks based on documentation from the Polish government catalogue of wartime losses. Watching this mesmerizing process comes with an unexpected conclusion: before each canvas can dry, the artists wipe away their own painstaking work in a stunning erasure that challenges the meaning of authorship, ownership, and recovery. Paintings by Raphael, Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Paul Rubens, and others are infinitely recreated and erased, offering new ways to process the impact of these stolen works and experience art as a means for resilience. 

The Contemporary Jewish Museum commissioned artwork by Sacramento-based artist Dave Lane to be placed in its soaring lobby space. The massive sculpture, entitled Lamp of the Covenant, is a 90-foot-long, six ton work suspended high over the heads of visitors. Attached to an enormous oval of steel are antique objects: world globes, light bulbs, tools such as nineteenth century apple peelers and blow torches, and various other objects that suggest the unfolding marvels of the cosmos.