What, When, Where: Didi Suydam at the Newport Art Museum

By Lisa E. Harrison

The Newport Art Museum always has a colorful calendar, and this Fall is no exception. Jamestown-based artist Didi Suydam’s show, “Presence,” explores space and the environment, and beckons viewers to see the natural world from a new vantage.

Native Landscape I: The Lost Truce. Diptych. 30″ x 60″ , Printed on Hahnemuhle Cotton Rag Paper. All images courtesy of Didi Suydam

Suydam’s medium is original photography, ingeniously manipulated via Photoshop. By digitally altering an image, flipping it around, and creating different compositions, the artist makes that which was once recognizable wonderfully unfamiliar.

Ascension II: Just Folly, 32″x 32″, Digital Aluminum Print

The ever-changing world around us—water, rock, stone, woods, landscape—stars in Suydam’s striking photography. “In essence,” she says, “this work is about the natural elements and exploring the similar properties within them, how they come together to manifest the space and environment in which we exist.”

SkogaFoss I: Healing the Breach, Diptych, 30″ x 96″, Printed on Hahnemuhle Cotton Rag Paper

Her aim, she says, is to “transform a picture into something that strikes a nerve in a powerful way” and her hope is that viewers want to spend time with the images.

SkogaFoss II: Silence Weeping, 36” x 36″, Digitally Manipulated Photograph printed on Hahnemuhle Cotton Rag paper

We promise you won’t want to look away.

Drift , 36″ x 55″, Digitally Manipulated Photograph, Aluminum Print

“Presence” will be on exhibit at the Newport Art Museum through November 4. For more information and to contact the artist, visit www.didisuydam.com. NOTE: Also on view at the Newport Art Museum is “From the Ground Up,” a stunning collection of Bunny Harvey’s landscape paintings. Read all about the artist and get a sneak peak of her work in New England Home’s July/August Artistry column.