Having garnered international acclaim, Slonem’s work belongs in over 250 esteemed collections around the world, including major institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Würth Museum. His works are collected by U.S. Presidents and notable celebrities such as Sharon Stone, Brooke Shields, Kylie Jenner, and Jennifer Lopez. Throughout his illustrious career, Hunt Slonem has left an indelible mark on the contemporary art landscape, captivating audiences worldwide with his unparalleled blend of whimsy and profundity. Slonem is best known for his neo-expressionist paintings of wildlife exotica — most famously bunnies, tropical birds, and butterflies — often suspended in antique frames. Drawing inspiration from the spiritual and natural worlds, he repeats these motifs on an epic scale in an act of visual and artistic mantra.
With a career spanning six decades, Slonem has established himself as a leading figure in contemporary art known for his distinctive aesthetic. Slonem honed his craft at Tulane University in New Orleans and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, where he (was exposed to alum Alex Katz and) studied under Alice Neel. Since his first solo show in 1977, Slonem’s work has been showcased globally, including in Madras, Quito, Venice, Gustavia, San Juan, Guatemala City, Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, Stockholm, Oslo, Cologne, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. He has received several prestigious grants, including the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Cultural Counsel Foundation’s Artist Project, for which he painted an 80-foot mural in the World Trade Center in the late 1970s. Slonem’s artwork has been chronicled by numerous books and monographs, including Bunnies (Glitterati Inc., 2014), Birds (Glitterati Inc., 2017) and Hunt Slonem: An Art Rich and Strange (Harry N. Abrams, 2002). His studios and homes have been profiled in such books as When Art Meets Design (Assouline Publishing, 2014) and Pleasure Palaces: The Art and Homes of Hunt Slonem (powerHouse Books, 2007), among others.
The World of Hunt Slonem embraces the artist’s timeless sense of wonder and vitality. Blending the fantastic and the natural, Slonem’s use of vibrant colors, rich textures, and recurring motifs imbue his work with a sense of whimsy and enchantment. Each piece on display offers a window into the artist’s rich imagination and unparalleled mastery of form and color.
West Chelsea Contemporary is honored to open The World of Hunt Slonem in conjunction with HUNTOPIA, Slonem’s worldwide debut garden exhibition at the San Antonio Botanical Garden.
