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Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

American, b. 1951

Hunt Slonem has mastered the art of repetition in his exuberant Neo-Expressionist paintings. Some of his favorite subjects are bunnies, butterflies and the tropical birds that live in the private aviary nestled within his 30,000-square-foot studio complex in Brooklyn, New York.

“I believe in repetition like a holy mantra or rosary,” Slonem told Introspective, referring to his artistic method. “I am slightly influenced by Pop art, like the repetition of soup cans, postage stamps and celebrities. It’s something I have been doing my whole life.”

Slonem’s depictions of birds — which are often rendered in thick, gestural brushstrokes and arranged in a loose grid — owe to a fascination with tropical avian life that he developed during a childhood spent in Hawaii and Nicaragua. Today, along with the aviary, his studio contains a personal garden, a collection of antiques and walls and walls of artworks.

“I am a collector of things. My primary focus is color and objects. I love to make them work in a space,” Slonem says. “Sometimes I define a space with color.”

Besides birds, Slonem has painted so many bunnies that they’ve become a signature. Limned in expressive, urgent strokes on flat, vibrantly colored backgrounds, these creatures fascinate through their subtle variations. “I have painted hundreds of rabbits, but each one is different,” the artist has explained. “Each has its own personality, and it just comes through me.”

The multitalented Slonem also sculpts, makes prints, creates installations and restores historic spaces. His work has achieved cult status among collectors and is represented in the permanent collections of such esteemed institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Slonem has even made an appearance on Real Housewives of New York.

Find original Hunt Slonem paintings, prints and other art for sale on 1stDibs.

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Artist: Hunt Slonem
Golden Rod
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Laguna Beach, CA
Hunt Slonem's "Golden Rod" presents a mesmerizing display of white and black butterflies gracefully fluttering against a rich Tuscan yellow background. The use of sgraffito—a techniq...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Hunt Slonem "Yellow Score" Bunny
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Boston, MA
Artist: Slonem, Hunt Title: Yellow Score Date: 2024 Medium: Oil on Panel Unframed Dimensions: 10" x 8" Framed Dimensions: 13" x 11" Signature: Signed Verso Edition: Unique Hu...
Category

2010s Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Hunt Slonem "Delight" Black and White Bunny
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Houston, TX
Hunt Slonem "Delight" Black and White Bunny A single rabbit gestured in black on a white background in a vintage frame Unframed: 8 x 6 inches Framed: 12.5 x 10.5 inches *Painting is...
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Hunt Slonem "Welch" Black and White Bunny
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Houston, TX
Hunt Slonem "Welch" Black and White Bunny A single rabbit gestured in black on a white background in a vintage frame Unframed: 8 x 6 inches Framed: 14 x 12 inches *Painting is frame...
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Hunt Slonem "Pair Offspring" Black and Blue Bunny
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Houston, TX
Hunt Slonem "Pair Offspring" Black and Blue Bunny A single rabbit gestured in black on a blue background in a vintage frame Unframed: 8 x 6 inches Framed: 14 x 12 inches *Painting i...
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Hunt Slonem "Lavender Belle Grove" Bunny
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Boston, MA
Artist: Slonem, Hunt Title: Lavender Belle Grove Date: 2024 Medium: Oil on Wood Unframed Dimensions: 12" x 10" Framed Dimensions: 18.5" x 16.5" Signature: Signed Verso Edition:...
Category

2010s Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Bellbird (Diptych), 1988 - Pair
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Lexington, KY
This early Hunt Slonem pair is each signed and dated (verso). Sold as a pair, these pieces showcase Slonem's bright, vibrant style with his iconic tropical birds. Unframed dimensio...
Category

1980s Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Hunt Slonem "Red Peace" Bunny
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Boston, MA
Artist: Slonem, Hunt Title: Red Peace Date: 2023 Medium: Oil on Wood Unframed Dimensions: 10" x 8" Framed Dimensions: 15" x 13" Signature: Signed Verso Edition: Unique Provena...
Category

2010s Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Cockatoo Whisper Joy, Hunt Slonem
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Porto, 13
This painting is an oil work by Hunt Slonem, created in 2023. The piece is in excellent condition, brand new, and measures 127 x 178 cm (50 x 70 inches). The painting features a grid...
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Hunt Slonem "Doubles" Orange Heart Diamond Dust Bunny
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Houston, TX
Hunt Slonem "Doubles" Orange Heart Bunny A rabbit pair gestured in yellow and orange on a matching Diamond Dust background in a vintage frame. Unframed: 14.5 x 14 inches Framed: 20 ...
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Resin, Oil, Panel

Hunt Slonem, "Green Singers", 25x22 Pink Yellow Bird Finch Oil Painting
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Saratoga Springs, NY
Renowned artist Hunt Slonem's "Green Singers" is a 25 x 22 colorful oil painting on wood board of contemporary abstract yellow and orange finches outlined in black against a vibrant ...
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Untitled
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Fairfield, CT
Oil on wood This work is framed. Bunny on blue. Price includes frame.
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Wood, Oil

7 Tangled in Blue (Amazons)
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Woodmere, OH
Green Birds / Blue
Category

2010s Abstract Impressionist Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Trinity
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Laguna Beach, CA
A wonderful composition of one of Slonem's most iconic subjects, Bunnies. This piece depicts a composition of three black bunnies set against a bright white background. The painting ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Trinity
Price Upon Request
Butterflies Tiger Zebra Swallowtails
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Hunt Slonem’s Butterflies Tiger & Zebra Swallowtails (2021) is a mesmerizing oil on canvas, measuring 48 x 48 inches, that celebrates the vibrant beauty of nature. The composition is...
Category

2010s Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Blue Diamond Dust Hutch
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Hunt Slonem’s Blue Diamond Dust Hutch (2024) is a dazzling mixed-media work that captures the artist’s signature charm and vibrancy. Created w...
Category

2010s Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Nile Red Butterflies
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Hunt Slonem’s The Nile Red Butterflies (2024) is a breathtaking large-scale oil on canvas measuring 72 x 84 inches, where a swarm of vibrant red butterflies takes center stage. The b...
Category

2010s Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Migration
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Hunt Slonem’s Migration (2024) is a monumental oil on canvas measuring 77 x 101 inches, a breathtaking celebration of color, movement, and natural beauty. The composition is alive wi...
Category

2010s Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Migration
Price Upon Request
Soulmates
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Fort Lauderdale, FL
About the Artwork: The artist's desire to illuminate his works was the impetus for the Glowbox series. About the Artist: Inspired by the luminescence and light quality of blown glas...
Category

2010s Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

LED Light, Acrylic

Soulmates
Price Upon Request
Beak to Beak
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Fort Lauderdale, FL
About the Artwork: Signed: Recto, bottom right The artist's desire to illuminate his works was the impetus for the Glowbox series. Inspired by the luminescence and light quality of blown glass, each acrylic painting on a plex substrate is internally lit by a custom-designed LED light box with a controllable dimmer switch. About the Artist: Inspired by nature and his 60 pet birds, Hunt Slonem is renowned for his distinct neo-expressionist style. He is best known for his series of bunnies, butterflies and tropical birds, as well as his large-scale sculptures and restorations of forgotten historic homes. Slonem’s works 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 show at the Fischbach Gallery in 1977, Slonem’s work has been showcased internationally hundreds of times, most recently at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. In 2017 and 2018, he was featured by the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the National Gallery in Bulgaria, and in countless galleries across the United States and around the world. His flair and admiration for far-flung destinations has been a staple of his life since childhood. Slonem was born in 1951 in Kittery, Maine, and his father’s position as a Navy officer meant the family moved often during Hunt’s formative years, including extended stays in Hawaii, California and Connecticut. He would continue to seek out travel opportunities throughout his young-adult years, studying abroad in Nicaragua and Mexico; these eye-opening experiences imbued him with an appreciation for tropical landscapes that would influence his unique style. After graduating with a degree in painting and art history from Tulane University in New Orleans, Slonem spent several years in the early 1970s living in Manhattan. It wasn’t until Janet Fish offered him her studio for the summer of 1975 that Slonem was able to fully immerse himself in his work. His pieces began getting exhibited around New York, propelling his reputation and thrusting him into the city’s explosive contemporary arts scene. He received several prestigious grants, including from Montreal’s Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, 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 also received an introduction to the Marlborough Gallery, which would represent him for 18 years. Hunt Slonem tends to embrace the ephemeral beauty of nature, a characteristic that brings a nurturing, spiritual effect to his creations. Throughout his extensive career as a New York artist, Slonem has favored the subject of exotic birds, rabbits, and butterflies. Lately, his compositions have consisted of flat spaces with simple forms pushed to the front of the picture plane. The artist creates exotic forms with expressive and highly textural brushstrokes that are full of intense color, loosely inspired by artists of the German Expressionism movement such as Ernst Ludwig and Emil Nolde. Henry Geldzahler, a scholar of Hunt Slonem, notes that of contemporary artists, “he particularly admires the work of Malcolm Morely, Francesco Clemente and Roberto Juarez, all exoticists whose works convey a spiritual aura. Lest we leave the impression, belied by the paintings that Slonem is all depth and piety, we should note that there is a remarkable levity in his work, a lightness of being.” Born in the Year of the Rabbit, according to the Chinese astrological...
Category

2010s Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

LED Light, Acrylic

Flutter
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Laguna Beach, CA
Hunt Slonem’s "Flutter" features eleven, multicolored butterflies set against a soft pale yellow background. Brought to life through the sgraffito technique, a method where Slonem us...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Flutter
Flutter
Price Upon Request
3 Hutch Blue Diamond
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Laguna Beach, CA
A wonderful composition of one of Slonem's most iconic subjects, Bunnies. "3 Hutch Blue Diamond" depicts a gestural figure of a group of blue bunnies on a deep cobalt blue background...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil, Acrylic

Mixed Leap
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Laguna Beach, CA
Hunt Slonem's "Mixed Leap" is a mesmerizing fusion of his signature motifs, showcasing a playful yet elegant black bunny painted with lively, gestural strokes. Set against a rich pur...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Mixed Leap
Mixed Leap
Price Upon Request
Hunt Slonem, Resin and Oil Paint Green Blue Bunnies Painting, Glisten Hutch
By Hunt Slonem
Located in White Plains, NY
'Glisten Hutch' by Hunt Slonem, 2023. Signed on back. Oil, resin, and acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 in. This painting features Slonem's signature bunnies outlined in white painted over ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Resin, Oil, Acrylic

Hunt Slonem Colorful Butterflies Oil Painting Morning Cloak Coma
By Hunt Slonem
Located in White Plains, NY
'Morning Cloak & Coma' by Hunt Slonem, 2019. Oil on wood, 28 x 34 in. / Frame: 34.75 x 40.5 in. Signed on back. This painting features a charming portrait of colorful butterflies. Th...
Category

2010s Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Wood, Oil

Hunt Slonem Silver and Black Bunnies Oil Painting Scored
By Hunt Slonem
Located in White Plains, NY
Available at Madelyn Jordon Fine Art. 'Scored' by Hunt Slonem, 2023. Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in. This painting features Slonem's signature bunnies painted in silver, outlined in black...
Category

2010s Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Hunt Slonem Butterfly Oil Painting Trinity 2
By Hunt Slonem
Located in White Plains, NY
Hunt Slonem butterfly oil painting 'Trinity 2' 2024. Oil on wood, 13 x 10.5 in. / Frame: 17 x 14.5 in. Signed on back. This painting features t...
Category

2010s Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Hunt Slonem, Multi-colored Bird Oil painting, Finches
By Hunt Slonem
Located in White Plains, NY
'Finches' by Hunt Slonem, 2022. Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in. This painting features Slonem's signature finches in white, red, blue, and green on a white background. Considered one of the great colorists of his time, Slonem’s neo-expressionist paintings feature an exuberant and bold, fauvist palette to emphasize his beloved menagerie of animals. Through the application of lavish, lush colors, Slonem’s painterly style continues to be fresh and innovative bordering on Pop Art aesthetics. Depicting his signature motifs of repeating whimsical animal imagery, the artist’s devotion to nature and its inhabitants are apparent. Born in Kittery, Maine in 1951, Hunt Slonem graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Painting and Art History from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Slonem later attended the prestigious Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, where he was exposed to influential artists from the New York area including Alex Katz, Alice Neel, Richard Estes, Jack Levine, Louise Nevelson and Al Held. This exposure played a pivotal role in Slonem’s artistic career, as it aided in his decision to move to New York in 1973. Since 1977, Slonem has had over 250 solo exhibitions at prestigious galleries. Museums, both domestic and international, have collected his work, among them 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. His work has been exhibited globally, including in Madras, Quito, Venice, Gustavia, San Juan, Guatemala City, Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, Stockholm, Oslo, Cologne, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. His work has been shown in thirty-one different museums including the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1981; the Museo Diocesano d'arte sacra Sant'Apollonia in Venice, Italy, in 1986; the Albany Museum of Art in Albany, Georgia, in 2007; the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2007; Museo de Arte de El Salvador in San Salvador...
Category

2010s Contemporary Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Tall Witness
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Fairfield, CT
oil on canvas
Category

1990s Neo-Expressionist Hunt Slonem Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Hunt Slonem animal paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Hunt Slonem animal paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of animal paintings to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of blue, pink, orange and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Hunt Slonem in paint, oil paint, canvas and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 21st century and contemporary and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Hunt Slonem animal paintings, so small editions measuring 8 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Enzio Wenk, Shelley Reed, and Rose Freymuth-Frazier. Hunt Slonem animal paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $4,940 and tops out at $155,000, while the average work can sell for $10,975.

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