Mike is a black and white bunny painting by US-american Artist Hunt Slonem.

Hunt Slonem’s paintings, particularly those from the “Bunny” series, are also selling very successfully at international auctions. Hunt Slonem’s 2024 painting “Red Rouse,” featuring a bunny, sold for US$12,700 at Sotheby’s “Contemporary Discoveries” sale on February 28, 2025, achieving 112% of its estimate.

“Untitled Yellow Bunny” from 2014 also achieved a respectable US$13,860 at Sotheby’s New York on December 10, 2021, in the “Every Mother Counts” sale, exceeding the estimate by 177%.

Hunt Slonem paintings are also sold extremely successfully at Christie’s in New York. “Tulip” achieved US$9,450 on February 16, 2023. The auction record for a Hunt Slonem painting stands at US$80,000. It was achieved for the work “Healer, Dr. Gregorio Hernandez” (1986) on May 18, 2019, in the U.S. Other notable sales included “Groove-Billed Barbet” (1986) for US$37,500 in 2020 at Christie’s in New York, “Lories” (2007) for $31,250, and “Blue Toucans” (1984), which sold for $22,860 at Wright in September 2025.

Hunt Slonem – Repetition as a homage to Warhol

Hunt Slonem was born in Maine, USA in 1951. His father was in the Navy, so the family moved often. He has lived in Hawaii, Virginia, Connecticut, California, Washington State and Nicaragua, among other places, what has had a lasting influence on his art.

Hunt Slonem graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans with a Bachelor of Arts degree in painting and Art History. He also took couses at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, where he studied and met influential artists from the New York area, such as Louise Nevelson, Alex Katz, Alice Neel, Richard Estes, Jack Levine and Al Held. Slonem refers to Alex Katz in particular as a big mentor and friend. His son, Vincent Katz, has published numerous books about Hunt Slonem.

Another important artist for Slonem is Andy Warhol. He says that the repetition in Warhol’s work had a lasting influence on him, especially the Campbell’s soup cans and the portrait of Marilyn Monroe. With repeating a motif in his work again and again, such as the bunny, Slonem makes a reference to Andy Worhol. It’s like with prayer, so the artist. For him, repetition is a form of worship. In 1973 Slonem moved to New York, where he has lived and worked ever since.