Inspired by nature and his 60 ornamental birds, Hunt Slonem is known for his distinct neo-expressionist style. He is best known for his series of bunnies, rabbits, butterflies and tropical birds, as well as his large-scale sculptures and restorations of forgotten historic homes. Slonem’s work can be found in the permanent collections of 250 museums around the world, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Whitney, the Miro Foundation, and the New Orleans Museum of Art.Since his first solo exhibition at Fischbach Gallery in 1977, Slonem’s work has been exhibited hundreds of times internationally.

Every morning when he enters his 30,000-square-foot studio, Hunt Slonem warms up by painting bunnies, his most enduring subject. His cheerful, colorful rabbits, which he paints with almost childlike contour lines, look as if they’ve hopped straight out of “Alice in Wonderland.” There is nothing serious about the Bunny paintings like Rose Red, no profound message – just fun. The colorful and playful element in his obsessive work and his obsessive subjects are part of the appeal. “Repetition is divinity,” says Slonem. “Just as the repetition of a phrase creates a mantra, the repetition of forms becomes an act of worship.” Many fans worship him on his throne of birds and rabbits. He has achieved cult status among the rich and famous: Julianne Moore, Kate Hudson and the Kardashians all own Slonem originals. Slonem is one of the most prolific and exhibited contemporary artists.

His paintings like this red one are in the permanent collections of over 50 museums around the world, from the Miró Museum in Barcelona and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art to the Guggenheim, Whitney and Metropolitan Museums in New York. His flair and admiration for far-flung destinations have been an integral part of his life since childhood. Slonem was born in Kittery, Maine, in 1951, and his father’s position as a Navy officer meant that the family moved often during Hunt’s formative years, including extended stays in Hawaii, California, and Connecticut. As a young adult, he continued to seek travel opportunities and studied abroad in Nicaragua and Mexico; these eye-opening experiences gave him an appreciation for tropical landscapes that would influence his unique style. After earning a degree in painting and art history from Tulane University in New Orleans, Slonem lived in Manhattan for several years in the early 1970s. It was not until Janet Fish made her studio available to him for the summer of 1975 that Slonem was able to fully immerse himself in his work. His work was exhibited throughout New York, furthering his reputation and catapulting him into the city’s explosive contemporary art scene. He received several prestigious grants, including from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation in Montreal, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Cultural Counsel Foundation’s Artist Project, for which he painted an 80-foot mural of the World Trade Center in the late 1970s. He was also introduced to the Marlborough Gallery, which would represent him for 18 years. As Slonem refined his aesthetic, his work began to appear in unique, contextual spaces. By 1995, he completed a huge, six-by-eight-foot mural of birds that spans the walls of the Bryant Park Grill restaurant in New York City. His charity work has led to dozens of partnerships, including a wallpaper of his famous bunnies specially designed with Lee Jofa for the Ronald McDonald House in Long Island.

Hunt Slonem continues to be heavily inspired by history and makes tangible connections to the past through his art. His popular portraits of Abraham Lincoln make the historical figure a pop art icon, and he is currently working on a ten-foot-tall bronze sculpture of French explorer Robert De La Salle to be put on public display in Louisiana. Slonem’s most ambitious project, however, is his mission to save America’s often forgotten historic buildings. Recognizing that too many of the country’s architectural gems have fallen into disrepair, Slonem was drawn to these national landmarks, inspired by their great age and beauty. His accomplishments include the restoration of Cordt’s Mansion in Kingston, New York, Lakeside and Albania plantations in Louisiana, and the Scranton Armory and Charles Sumner Woolworth mansion in Scranton, Pennsylvania. His sixth and most recent project is Belle Terre, a storied estate in South Kortright, New York. The reference to Andy Warhol is no accident. Repetition plays a large role in his work, and excess and extravagance define his life and art-both he and his brother Jeffrey were frequent guests at Andy Warhol’s legendary Factory in the 1970s. But unlike Warhol, who declared his art to be mass-produced, Slonem does everything with his own hands exactly as his Bunny Paintings.