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:
Charity Art Auction for Kenyan Schoolchildren
Travel Art: Masai Woman at Mount Kenya
August 7, 2019Masai Woman at Mount Kenya is an impasto oil painting...
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Comic Art: “I Love You: The Neglected Words” for Shaving In the Dark magazine
May 17, 2019"I Love You: The Neglected Words" is a wordless fully...
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Comic Art: Bad Year to Be a Cat, comic #4, At Shanghai’s St. Ignatius Cathedral
May 17, 2019Bad Year to Be a Cat, comic #4, At Shanghai's...
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Comic Art: Bad Year to Be a Cat, comic #3, At Shanghai’s China Art Museum
May 17, 2019Bad Year to Be a Cat, comic #3, At Shanghai's...
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Comic Art: Bad Year To Be a Cat, comic #2, In the Yuyuan Garden Bazaar
May 17, 2019Bad Year to Be a Cat, comic #2, In the...
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Travel Art: Snow Fish (Xue yu)
February 21, 2019Snow Fish (Xue yu) is a gouache painting by Dave...
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Travel Art: The Underpainting Lies Dialogue: Figurative and Non-representational Art
February 21, 2019The Underpainting Lies Dialogue: Figurative and Non-representational Art is an...
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Travel Art: Peacock Window (Bhaktapur, Nepal)
February 21, 2019Peacock Window (Bhaktapur, Nepal) is an oil painting by Dave...
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Comic Art: Bad Year to Be a Cat, comic #1, In the Former French Concession
February 21, 2019Bad Year to Be a Cat, comic #1, In the...
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Travel Art: Lady He (He Xiangu) of the Eight Immortals
February 20, 2019Lady He (He Xiangu) of the Eight Immortals is a...
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Comic Art: Bedding Shanghai, 2-page spread
February 20, 2019Bedding Shanghai, 2-page spread, is painted comic art by Dave...
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Travel Art: Cooking Mandarin Fish (Gue Yu)
February 20, 2019Cooking Mandarin Fish (Gue Yu) is a gouache painting by...
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Travel Art: Nepalese Tongba (Jaand or Millet Beer) (Kathmandu, Nepal)
January 28, 2019Nepalese Tongba (Jaand or Millet Beer) (Kathmandu, Nepal) is a...
Read MoreGet 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.
Dave Alber creates Travel Art and Travel Writing. His Travel Art shares an experience of wonder at our cultural continuity and universal humanity. His recent Travel Art exhibitions INTIMATIONS and Ravages of Time & Permanence of Wonder are in Kunshan and Suzhou, China respectively. 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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