CURRENT EXHIBITION
Ghost Ships and Mourning Doves
Robin Lasser Sydney Brown
October 1 - December 13, 2025
ON VIEW THROUGH
Saturday, Dec 13, 2025
ON VIEW THROUGH Saturday, Dec 13, 2025
“The two artists in this exhibition, Robin Lasser and Sydney Brown, propose that perhaps, to live with and through trauma and loss at the global scale we must first reengage with the body and the senses and get closer and more intimate with the fears and emotions that threaten to overwhelm us. The body of work presented in this exhibition features Lasser’s films projected within, and adjacent to memorial structures in the form of homes and water towers created by Brown. Brown’s delicate, semi abstract copper structures both contain the films and engage in conversation with them, pointing towards the fragility of manmade structures and perhaps mankind itself all the while standing as keepsakes and markers of humans and nature at a critical moment in time. What remains and what gets remembered, kept, treasured and carried through disaster and loss is all at stake in this installation as together, Lasser and Brown gesture at the core concerns, dreams and nightmares of humanity facing the brink of severe ecological changes and the inherent uncertainties of human made disaster.”
— Excerpt from What Remains? by Alena Sauzade, PhD (Full essay is published in the exhibition companion book.)
Alena Sauzade is the Gallery Director and Collections Manager at San José State University, where she oversees all aspects of gallery operations, including exhibitions, programming, the permanent collection, academic integration, and community outreach. Her curatorial approach is grounded in community engagement and interdisciplinary collaboration, working closely with artists, historians, and the public to create meaningful spaces for reflection and dialogue. Her exhibition projects bridge contemporary art with classroom curriculum and the broader community, fostering conversations around identity, memory, and social impact. Through inclusive programming, shee advances the role of art galleries as vital civic and academic spaces.
Exhibition Overview Video by Robin Lasser
ARTIST TALK
Saturday, November 8, 2025
Live performance by Awele Makeba along with Bay Area musicians Gil Guillermo and Alie Halla, who worked with Lasser on original music for her short films.
An engaging conversation moderated by Terri Cohn, independent curator, writer, and art historian. Learn about the inspiration behind Ghost Ships and Mourning Doves and how the two artists, Robin Lasser and Sydney Brown, begin their collaboration.
cover image by Hunter Ridenour
overhead shot by Phil Pilsl
Pre-Talk LIVE Performance
Cover Photo by Hunter Ridenour
Video Captured by Phil Pilsl
“Ballad of Climate Shipwreck”
Music and Vocals: Gil Guillermo and Alie Halla
Spoken Words: Awele Makeba
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Raised in Santa Barbara, Gil Guillermo started performing and composing as a young teen and hasn't stopped since. His musical influences are far-reaching, with many of his arrangements a nod to an eclectic past. While he enjoys covering other people's songs, his original music is inspired by or speaks of true-to-life experiences, dreams, and ponderings. In composing, he seeks mainly to please himself but finds much gratification if an original piece speaks to a listener, touches their emotion, or gets them to think about life or about oneself. Gil, now based in San Francisco, performs in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and, very occasionally, in Tagalog.
Alie Halla grew up in the South Bay, singing in church and harmonizing on family road trips, but it was only a few years ago that her love of music and background in language arts coalesced into songwriting...and she’s never felt more at home. Her songs are poetic and playful, and rooted in a desire to connect and heal. For Alie, live music is alchemy, conversation, and communion. In addition to her solo work, you can find Alie performing in San Francisco with Americana band Liberty Street, and eclectic duo Alie and Me.
Awele Makeba is an award winning and internationally known storyteller/teaching artist, literacy specialist, and recording artist recognized as a “truth teller," an artist for social change, and someone who sparks "aha!" moments. She researches, writes and performs hidden African American history, folklore, and personal tales. She provides opportunities for audiences to grapple with the meaning of their own lives as they make meaning of past lives. She has made it her life’s work to tell history through the words of its silenced and oft-forgotten witnesses. Awele uses art to catalyze deep conversations about race, our common humanity, and our vision of a just, humane, multiracial society. Awele teaches through performance and she animates democracy through her art.
all performance images by Hunter Ridenour
see above for video highlights of performance
INSTALLATION PHOTOS
Exhibition Companion Book
Get your copy of "Ghost Ships and Mourning Doves," this content-rich, hardcover companion book to our upcoming exhibition is beautifully designed with images of artworks in the show and beyond. Additionally, it contains essays from Terri Cohn, independent curator, writer, and art historian, Alena Sauzade, PhD, Gallery Director and Collections Manager at San José State University, & Diane Chung, gallerist, as well as the artists’ statements on this project. You'll also gain access, through QR codes, to video clips from Lasser's body of multi-media work.
