Charity Art Auction for Kenyan Schoolchildren

Dave Alber Showcases Comics, Illustration, and Oil Paintings Celebrating a Storyteller’s Approach to Travel in an Art Auction for Kenyan Schoolchildren
WangDe Art Shop,No. 8 Nanxianzi Lane, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
Charity Art Auction for Kenyan Schoolchildren— June 30, 7:30 pm
Contact art exhibition — June 30 – July 30
Sunday, June 30th, 6:30 pm, at WangDe Art Space, Charity Art Event helping children in the slums of Kenya. Sales of art will buy school supplies and fundamental necessities for children living in the slums in Kenya. Featuring the wax encaustic art of Nathan Pelton and the comic art, illustrations, and travel art oil paintings of Dave Alber. This party also kicks off the art exhibition Contact which, following in the tradition of British travel writer Jan Morris, celebrates contact between cultures. Party begins at 6:30 pm. Art talk, live art auction, mingling, and lots of fun. Hope to see you there.

Nathan Pelton has lead groups of Suzhou Foreign Language School students to Kenya for an exchange program with a school in an impoverished neighborhood. This art auction raised funds to buy school supplies and daily necessities for underprivileged children in Kenya’s slums. Nathan Pelton explains, “A seemingly insignificant one bottle of water, one pen, one pair of shoes is the most urgent need for underprivileged children in Kenya.” This art auction was a collaborative event that featured the wax encaustic art of Nathan Pelton and work in different mediums from Dave Alber, who strongly connected with the charity art auction, as his book The Heart of Myth: Wisdom Stories From Endangered People recounts the life ways and mythology of the Masai of Kenya (found here.)
The Contact art exhibition, curated by WangDe, celebrates a storyteller’s approach to travel by reflecting on the life and travel writing of Jan Morris, one of Britain’s greatest post-World War II travel writers. WangDe explains, “The theme of this exhibition follows in the path laid out by Jan Morris’ Contact, as a tribute to his/her travel writing, which contains extraordinary insight and immortal expression.”
The exhibition location in WangDe Art Space (itself a blend of dynastic-era and modern design) brings art to a residential setting, reminding us that paintings are not only for museums, but are actually far more accessible and even intimate. In this environment, images and text (in English and Chinese) pulse between media-based, utilitarian, and purely aesthetic contexts… blurring the boundaries between each in a truly contemporary international milieu. The foreign and domestic blend together and bridge the cultural gap through communications in both languages and the purely aesthetic realm beyond language. Narrative becomes space… and space becomes a social and experiential aesthetic whole.
Extending Jan Morris’s tradition of travel writing into the present, Dave Alber explores his own trajectory in illustrated articles, comics, and oil paintings as forms of visual journalism. The exhibition space of Contact, itself, is an experiment in “narrative space”. It brings work from three disciplines (comics, illustrations, and oil paintings) into one unique narrative space.
The narratives — in travel writing, comics, and illustrations— unpack the meaning of Chinese temples, festivals, food customs, architecture, and enigmas, such as Shangri-la. Outsider Art, Dave’s Bad Year to Be a Cat comic series explores a minority outsider’s perspective in Shanghai through the metaphor of a cat’s experience of dog year in China. As WangDe explains, “With friendly understanding, a demonstration of respect, and a conscious avoidance of the narrow-minded rejection of the ‘foreign’, Dave Alber’s artwork exudes a light joy, but also offers the humorous perspective of an American traveler.”
Travel Artist, Dave Alber brought a unique cross-cultural experience to Suzhou, China with:
- a collaborative charity art auction benefiting the schoolchildren of an impoverished neighborhood in Kenya;
- a reminder of the present moment’s debt to the past, as signified by the exhibition location, the trajectory of travel narrative from Jan Morris, and the themes of cultural continuity reflected in his travel art;
- Outsider Art, in a comic series written in both Chinese and English, sharing insights from being outside the dominant culture of the region; and
- Contemporary Art blending both high and low aesthetics in a diversity of mediums in an event space designed to further disrupt the hard and fast distinctions within the art world.
The Charity Art Auction for Kenyan Schoolchildren contained the following pieces of Travel Art:
Get the auction catalogue at the link HERE:
http://downloads.ilovetravelart.com/Kenya-Art-Auction-Nathan-Pelton-Dave-Alber.pdf
PM Dave Alber if you want to be sent the file directly through social media.
Dave wrote about the Masai of Kenya in his book The Heart of Myth.
Below is an audio excerpt from Dave Alber’s anthology of myth, The Heart of Myth. To read a print excerpt, chick HERE.

Check out Dave Alber’s Hybrid Oil 360° Panoramic VR Paintings here: Old World New World, Suzhou Hilton 360°, Temple of Mystery 360°, Suzhou Center 360°, Twin Pagodas 360°.
Dave Alber creates Travel Art and Travel Writing. He is the inventor of Hybrid Oil 360° Panoramic VR Paintings. His Travel Art shares an experience of wonder at our cultural continuity and universal humanity. His recent Travel Art exhibitions Old World New World, Contact, INTIMATIONS and Ravages of Time & Permanence of Wonder are in Kunshan and Suzhou, China. Dave’s comic art and illustrations have appeared recently in That’s Shanghai, Suzhou Review, Shaving in the Dark, Open Magazine, and Nepali Renaissance. His comic “Bedding Shanghai” was featured in the Shanghai International Literary Festival. You can receive Dave’s art book Dave Alber: Travel Art: 2018 Part 1: Intimations for free at ILoveTravelArt.com. Dave’s longer Bio and Artist Statement is here.

Get Your Free Copy of my Travel Art book: INTIMATIONS
- 23 paintings reflecting adventures in China, Myanmar, and Nepal
- four travel articles
- two pages of hand painted comic art
- and one delicious recipe for cooking Mandarin Fish

What readers say about Travel Art: INTIMATIONS:
“Fascinating idea to combine travel art into a book and a website community.”
“Creative expression from travel impressions married to art.”
“Loved it!”
“Master of your imagination.”
Join the TRAVEL ART ADVENTURER’S CLUB, get the Art Book INTIMATIONS, and be the first to see new paintings!
- Sign up for the Travel Art Adventurer’s Club and receive your free art book
- Also you gain discounts on Portrait Painting and Travel Art commissions
- And You’ll get travel discounts and opportunities
- Finally you earn advance notice about auctions, exhibitions, and events
Thank you for being part of the Travel Art Adventurer’s Club family.
Warmly,
Dave Alber


Copyright © Dave Alber 2019
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