Recently returned from teaching in China, local oil and acrylic artist Dave Alber, who lives in Brooksville, is set to launch “Resilient Americana: A Renewal of American Virtues In Tempering Times.”
Resilient Americana is a weekly virtual reality gallery showcasing Alber’s Hybrid VR Paintings™ that celebrate American virtues in the time of COVID-19. The paintings are physical/virtual hybrid paintings that occupy physical space on your wall while simultaneously manifesting within the virtual world.
Alber, a native Floridian grew up in Tampa but has led a bit of a gypsy life working and traveling in the US and then in Nepal, Thailand, India and latterly for several years in China.
It was while he was in China teaching English that Alber developed his Hybrid VR Paintings™. His concept was first revealed in 2019 in the book A Curious Heart’s Wanderlust in China and then in the art catalogue Ravages of Time & Permanence of Wonder.
Gaining recognition, he has created several online galleries of his art, as well as being invited to exhibit his work in the Old World New World exhibition in KunChef in Kunshan, China.
Alber says, “Hybrid VR Paintings™ connect the long continuity of the oil painting tradition with the immediacy of 21st century technology. Not everyone sees the value of art, but those who value the art tradition will certainly want to explore this new marriage of physical art and VR technology.”
Resilient Americana documents the resilience of American culture in the small town ways of Brooksville in Hernando County, Florida during the time of COVID-19.
It is the artist’s hope to bring attention inside by reflections on small town images as a metaphor for Americans’ eternal connection with the abiding virtues within. “What virtues shape our character? What noble traits define our spirit? What historical and cultural trajectories work through us and lift us empowered from within?
American virtues are celebrated in America’s historical tradition in the lives of George Washington, Abigail Adams, and Davey Crocket; in the folklore tradition with such characters as John Henry, Kate Shelley, and Paul Bunyan; in the literary tradition of Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, and F. Scott Fitzgerald; in the religious traditions of Mother Ann Lee, Black Elk, and Dr. Martin Luther King; in the rich musical traditions of hymns, spirituals, powwows, ragtime, jazz, country, and rock and roll; In the philosophical tradition of Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, and Hannah Arendt; As well as in the traditions of sports, exploration, education, science, invention, entrepreneurism, humanitarianism, philanthropy, indeed, in every discipline of excellence and human achievement.
Any art lover can hang a Dave Alber Hybrid VR Painting™ on their wall and through a monitor, cellphone, Smart TV, or VR headset allow guests to enter the Hybrid VR Painting™ in an immersive VR experience.
Encouraging social distancing, this VR gallery is available through online, cellular, and VR headset technology.
Alber’s VR Paintings Apps. are available on the following platforms and VR output formats:
Cellular:
· Available at the Google Play Store
· Available at the Amazon AppStore
VR Headset:
· Available at the Oculus Go Store
· Available as a download for HTC Vive at http://davealber.com
Online:
· http://thefloatinggallery.com
“It’s reminiscent of the sound barrier being broken,” artist Alber states. “Hybrid VR Paintings™ are physical oil paintings intact within the arrow-like trajectory of the representational art tradition that have shattered the barrier from physical art to virtual art… completely whole. They link the physical world, virtual world, and the continuity of our cultural tradition together in a singular fever of paradox.”
An introduction to this new integration of art and technology, is available at http://davealber.com. Art galleries and collectors interested in Dave Alber’s Hybrid VR Paintings™ are invited to contact Dave Alber at [email protected].
In upcoming weeks, the Hernando Sun will be publishing Dave Alber’s Resilient Americana Series featuring some of Brooksville’s historic locations, accompanied by Hernando Sun’s coverage of these special places.
Do you have any requests for the Resilient Americana Series? Contact Dave Alber at [email protected].
