Hunt Slonem draws on an ancient visual language. His bunnies, butterflies, birds and flowers have appeared for centuries as symbols of renewal, abundance and transformation, from Flemish still-life painting to Japanese woodblock prints. Beneath their playful surfaces, these familiar creatures carry a deeper symbolism.
Working in oil, Slonem paints with thick, gestural brushstrokes over richly coloured grounds. Each canvas is built quickly and intuitively, its surface retaining the energy of every decision. The repetition is meditative, almost devotional, creating work that is joyful without being shallow.
Slonem has described his method as being close to a holy mantra. His visual world was shaped partly by time spent with Andy Warhol, and partly by a childhood in Hawaii and Nicaragua, which left him with an enduring fascination for tropical birds. Around sixty still live in the aviary inside his 30,000-square-foot Brooklyn studio.
His work is held in the permanent collections of more than 250 museums worldwide, including the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney and the Smithsonian. He has also exhibited in more than 350 exhibitions internationally.
Slonem divides his time between Brooklyn and a collection of restored Gilded Age mansions in upstate New York and Louisiana. Filled with art, antiques and colour, he considers these houses ongoing works in their own right.
