I draw from a wide range of photographic subjects such as landscapes, botanicals, and wildlife as well as urban environments and people. I follow an intuitive yet somewhat ordered process of layering or merging portions of photos until an image that speaks to me emerges. Most often this is more likely a random bit of serendipity than deliberate intent. Images often suggest a sense of time and place or reflect a rich and ethereal interplay of color, shape, or form. Images may provoke an indefinable question that does not readily yield answers without further study and reflection. Ultimately, my collages provide a vehicle to stimulate both my imagination and that of the viewer, leaving one free to interpret and create an individual sense of meaning and value.

I enjoy the tension between what I was expected to be and what I am. The person I am today is by no means due to any accidents or episodes of chance. I have learned to embrace the environment that “built” me, as I credit the disappointments as much as the triumphs in shaping me. My experiences as a woman, born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, have led me to investigate the social stratification and conventional familial expectations found in various subcultures of my native area. I choose to illustrate my investigation of these traditional systems of personal definition through figurative representations of rebellion and acceptance in my paintings. Depictions of defiant female figures symbolize my own maternal desire to assert the same sense of determination that I used to teach babies to walk in teaching young women to walk away from antiquated beliefs that disagree with who they strive to become. Through my paintings, I celebrate those who defy cultural presumptions through acts of self-rule and resistance to conform.

I begin each of my paintings by taking photographs of female figures and local birds from the Mississippi Delta that I am interested in combining on a large-scale canvas. I often “steal” fists full of dirt or remnants of crops to mix with acrylic paint to apply texture and reinforce the idea of environmental influences. Then, I use acrylic or oil to incorporate the chosen figure from my photographs. I favor deep violets and blues juxtaposed with warm hazes of light with water or turpentine used as a vehicle for fluidity.

My technique of literally taking from the terrain and merging with the figure is used to amplify my desire to convey the importance of carefully selecting notions from ones fostering to create a desired entity. The entanglement of an uncompromising landscape, organic shapes, and feminine form is intentional in acknowledging the factors of our environment that influence our personal beliefs and self-image. My use of birds is to symbolize freedom, hope, and self-determination. I often choose a large surface to imply a sense of urgency in the matter of establishing one’s independence from confining convictions encouraged by strict familial concepts. I use my work to declare ownership in the development of one’s own identity and the courage to follow through.

Suyapa Quinn expresses her ideas through oil paintings and mixed-media objects. After earning a Fine Arts degree from the University of Madrid and a Graphic Design degree from Pratt Institute, she furthered her studies in Computer Animation at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Her diverse career includes roles as an animator, graphic designer, art director, and illustrator. Suyapa has worked for notable clients such as Time Magazine, Avon Books, and the United Nations Children’s Fund. She also taught art in New York public schools and led art therapy at Harlem Hospital Center.

Suyapa has exhibited her work in solo shows at the Galeria Ten in Barcelona, the Edward Williams Art Gallery, in NJ, and the Museum of Temporary Art, in Washington, D.C. Her paintings are part of permanent collections at the Carrol Reece Museum (Tennessee) and the Charles Dickens Museum (London).

Her achievements include a First Prize for Design from the Central Park Conservancy and a Certification of Excellence from the Art Students League of New York. Suyapa has also been featured in several art interviews, including:

Aatonau Interview
Contemporary Art Curator Magazine Interview
MyBio.art Interview

EXHIBITIONS

I. Miller Gallery
730 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. (57th St)

Yonkers Arts
540 Nepperhan Ave. # 544, Yonkers, N.Y. 10701

Nolita Gallery
345 Broome St. NYC Soho

The Arts Festival
White Plains, N.Y.

Art Basel
Switzerland

Blue Door Gallery
13 Riverdale Ave., Yonkers, N Y. 10701

Venezia 2.0
Cipriarte Gallery
Venice, Italy

One Art Space Gallery
23 Warren Street, Street Level – Gallery 1, TriBeCa, New York 10007

Art Expo, Expometro
Milan, Italy

Thomson Gallery Fine Art
Schmidgasse 4, 6300 Zug, Switzerland

Pleiades Gallery
547 West 27th Street, Suite 304, New York, N.Y. 10001

ART EXHIBITIONS TO BE EXPECTED

Artdeco Weekend
January 18th and 19th, 2025
Miami Beach, On Ocean Drive, FL

The Holy Art Gallery
January 32st, 2025
62 Wood Ln, London W12 7RH, UK

Yonkers Arts
February 7th, 2025
540 Nepperhan Ave. # 544, Yonkers, N.Y. 10701

My work in fine arts has principally been in 2 classes of abstract paintings: oils and water-based paints. However, I have completed numerous works in drawing. I focus on color, texture, methodology of delivery, and composition. In composition, I am interested in positive space and negative space as well. I believe the painting/drawing is a manifestation of my emotional state of both conscious and unconscious feelings.

Working through the trauma of war and displacement since a tender age, I have come to observe the ravages it has left on me, and through me, on the women of my country, Lebanon. With every trip to visit my mother and the women I knew, I became aware of their need to be seen and to be acknowledged for the suffering they overcame. In the United States, in a quiet setting, I was able to reach into those parts of me desperate to be heard with the help of a few trusted guides and friends. From this journey, everything exploded: colors, lines, and the need to express the exasperation living in my darkness and the darkness of the women most cherished to my heart. It is my hope that the more I tend to these lonely places, the more healing can seep into the hearts of women marked by war and resilience.

I create art because it visually represents my philosophical balance between planned structure and random chaos. The flow of color, the combination of textures, and the effect of light influence the spontaneous accidents that can occur during the process of creation. I embrace those chaotic moments that lead to altered, insightful outcomes. With my life and my art, I strive to find that balance. The richness of mixed media can be found in my manipulated canvas pieces. These works encompass canvases that have been woven, pleated, slashed, or layered.

Fire Country PANIC is a mixed-media composition on canvas. Sections from a map of California are surrounded by flames and smoke. It is framed with matchboxes. Panic filled my heart and soul as I fled from the recent Los Angeles County fires.

As a photographer, I aim to capture images that captivate with intricate patterns, angles, and shapes from nature and the elements. This “Fire Horse” artwork is an abstraction, blending photography and digital painting. It represents my Chinese astrological sign as I take my 5th cycle around the Zodiac of animals. This fractured, stained-glass form presents a kaleidoscopic effect with an elegance of playful light and colorful crystallized luminescence, radiating out from the central figure in a floral background.

In the last three decades, I have been creating wall-mounted, cast resin, and aluminum sculptures combined with canvas and gold leaf, and exploring the computer as an art tool for creating digital artwork.

All my life, I have loved to create art full of emotions and feelings, “soul,” with the satisfaction of fun. I am interested in the balance and composition of colors and objects rather than the reality of the items.

The direction of the last two decades has been aimed at understanding and, through artwork, expressing the human struggle of emotions and adaptations. For the past ten years, I have been polishing my creative work in the Surreal-abstract style.

The main motto of my artwork is: Just as in a good story, the readers have space to create their image; in a good picture, the viewers can form their own account.

Color was the first language I ever spoke, and it came roaring back to life when I painted across Italy. Traveling through Rome, Florence, Venice, Tuscany, and the quiet spaces in between, I found myself immersed in a culture where beauty is not rushed, where history breathes through stone, pigment, and light. Painting there was not an act of observation, but of participation.

Experiencing other cultures widens our field of vision. In Italy, I learned that color carries memory, ritual, and emotion — frescoes holding centuries of devotion, sunlit walls weathered into poetry, palettes shaped by land, labor, and lineage. That vibrancy seeped into my work, expanding how I understand beauty: not as perfection, but as presence.

Color, in my practice, is not decoration — it is conversation. It becomes a bridge between places, people, and inner landscapes. Each hue reflects a lived moment: the warmth of terracotta streets, the cobalt hush of cathedral shadows, the bruised violets of dusk settling over ancient ruins. These experiences transformed my relationship with color into something visceral and human.

My work explores the tension between structure and spontaneity — a dialogue inspired by Italy’s balance of discipline and abandon. Precision learned from architecture dissolves into instinctive gesture; control gives way to surrender. Through this contrast, I paint the moment when perspective shifts and curiosity replaces certainty.

Ultimately, my work is an invitation to remain open — to let unfamiliar places reshape us. Travel teaches us that beauty multiplies when we listen deeply, move slowly, and allow ourselves to be changed. These paintings are records of that transformation: a celebration of vibrancy, connection, and the expansive joy of seeing the world — and ourselves — anew.