Born to Be Blue is part of a new series that deals with creating an illusion of depth and space with the use of color and drawing.
This piece was added to the AFA Art Collection in 2024 and is currently part of the New Views exhibition at the AFA art house in Calgary. It is currently featured on the art house "New Acquisitions" wall, which will be updated regularly with new works from the AFA Art Collection.
Artist Dick Der (right) poses next to his artwork, Born to Be Blue, next to Jean Der (left).
About the Artist
Dick Der was born in China and moved to Canada as a child. He graduated from the University of Alberta in 1974, earning his BFA.
According to the late arts journalist Gilbert Bouchard, Der possesses a “love of all things urban” that he expresses through “geometric works [that] depict abstract inner-city vistas [and] boast actual objects salvaged from downtown streets—metal rods, lengths of wire, hunks of rebar, bits of wood, cardboard, and squares of metal screen.” Such materials, said Bouchard, demonstrate “Der’s particular love of more derelict aspects of city life—old buildings and abandoned warehouses… [and] aged portions of legendary cosmopolitan megacities [such as] New York or Paris.”
Der says he aims at evoking a “tranquil, mystical, and spiritual experience” through his mixed-media collages and paintings, which may also contain Chinese calligraphy whose meanings he does not intend to be taken literally, but whose forms suggest a “connection between the past, present, and future.”
Der’s solo exhibitions in Edmonton include Studio Watch at the Edmonton Art Gallery, In the Rough at The Works Festival, and Chinatown Tango and Snapshots at the Scott Gallery in Edmonton. Several public, corporate, and private collections house Der’s work, including those of the Grand Prairie College, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Camino Foundation, Anglo Continental Limited in Hong Kong, and the Singapore Eromatic Company. Der recently retired from the Department of Art and Design, Painting Division, at the University of Alberta.