Hunt Slonem (born July 18, 1951 in Kittery, Maine) is an American artist known for his expressive paintings of exotic animals, lush landscapes, and spiritual motifs. His work is an exuberant celebration of color, repetition, and baroque elegance, often featuring rabbits, tropical birds, and butterflies as recurring protagonists. Slonem is not just an artist—he is a world unto himself.
Raised in a family with diplomatic connections, Slonem traveled to Latin America and Asia at an early age. These early journeys left an indelible mark on his imagination and fueled his fascination with exotic cultures, colors, and creatures. After studying at Tulane University in New Orleans and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, he developed a style all his own: a blend of neo-expressionism, spirituality, and pop baroque.
His studios – often housed in historic buildings that he personally restores – are like visual temples: filled with antique mirrors, stuffed birds, chandeliers and meter-high canvases. Slonem regards painting as a daily ritual practice. He starts each morning by painting dozens of small-scale rabbits, a form of visual meditation and an ode to the Chinese zodiac sign under which he was born.
Although his rabbits are perhaps his best-known work, he continues to surprise with large, weathered canvases full of parrots, peacocks and palms, built up in thick layers of oil paint. His signature technique – scratching lines into wet paint with the back of his brush – creates a vibrant pattern that gives his work an almost textile dimension.
Hunt Slonem's art hangs in more than 250 museum collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim and the Whitney Museum. But he remains averse to trends and art historical pigeonholes. He paints from a sense of wonder – about nature, the mystical and the beauty of the forgotten.
More than just an artist, Slonem is also a collector, interior designer and patron of heritage. His life is a Gesamtkunstwerk, in which art, architecture, animals and history merge seamlessly. In a time of minimalism and digital detachment, Hunt Slonem offers a baroque counter-voice full of colour, texture and living energy.
