WITHOUT END: Recent Work on Grief by Cara Levine

November 9, 2025 - May 31, 2026 | Oregon Jewish Museum & Center for Holocaust Education, Portland, OR

Artist:

Cara Levine

curatorial statement:

They say every snowflake is different – but the blizzard, it covers us all the same.

– Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

The experience of grief—private, universal, and ever-present—lies at the core of Cara Levine’s sculptural and community-based practice. Deeply rooted in Jewish ritual, storytelling, and the act of making, Levine’s work explores how the pain of loss permeates our lives, bonding us through shared experience and quiet interconnection.

Without End invites visitors into a space where the sense of grief becomes tactile and visible. What does a memory look like? How do we touch what is no longer there? Can absence take form? These questions reverberate throughout the exhibition, asking us to consider the shape of a feeling, the weight of remembrance, and the possibility of connection after loss.

Through sculpture, participatory installations, and communal acts of making, Levine explores grief as a cyclical, boundless force—one that ripples through individuals, communities, and landscapes. Her work is simultaneously solitary and collective, intimate and expansive, grounded in personal memory and shaped by global events.

Central to Levine’s process is a ritual of replication inspired by Jewish mysticism—a meditative practice of re-creating form to hold and transform pain. Visitors are invited to move beyond passive observation and step into the role of collaborator: to pick up a dowel, share a story, hold the weight of loss in their own hands. In this space, grief is not resolved—it is held. Without end.

Yaelle S. Amir, Fall 2025

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About the Artist:

Deeply rooted in Jewish ritual, storytelling, and the act of making, Cara Levine’s work explores how the pain of loss permeates our lives, bonding us through shared experience and quiet interconnection. Through sculpture, participatory installations, and communal acts of making, Levine showcases grief as a cyclical, boundless force that ripples through individuals, communities, and landscapes. Her work is simultaneously solitary and collective, intimate and expansive, grounded in personal memory and shaped by global events.

Central to Levine’s process is a ritual of replication informed by her longstanding interest in Jewish mysticism and meditation practice, where the recreation of a form has the power to hold and transform suffering. Visitors are invited to move beyond passive observation and step into the role of collaborator: to pick up a dowel, share a story, and name the weight of loss with their own hands. In this space, grief is not resolved; it is held. 

Although based in California, Cara’s ties to Portland include former teaching at Lewis & Clark College, and organizing the city’s first annual Self-Taught Artists Fair with Public Annex in 2017. She is an inaugural Cultural Leadership Fellow with the Mandel Institute for Nonprofit Leadership, with her recognition as a creative artist marking a groundbreaking moment in the fellowship’s history.

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