A dive into the career of Neo-expressionist painter Hunt Slonem

Hunt Slonem is an American painter, sculptor, and print maker best known for his Neo-expressionist paintings of tropical birds, butterflies and bunnies. The 67-year-old artist, whose career took off in the 1970s, has had his work displayed regularly at both public and private exhibitions, receiving several grants and awards. Over 50 museums internationallyincludeSlonem’spaintingsintheircollections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan, New York.

Last month Hunt Slonem had an exhibition in Dubai and was also promoting his latest book in collaboration with As sou line, Gate keeper: World of Folly, which chronicles his redecoration of The Colonel Louis Watres Armory in Pennsylvania. When did you first start painting? What fuelled your loveforart?I started painting as a young child, it was all I ever wanted to do. My father was involved in government things, so we moved a lot, so I held onto my painting. I always loved tropical topics, so I moved to Hawaii and came to life. I love to draw birds, butterflies, monkeys, rabbits. My grandfather painted. We didn’t live close to him but he used to send us his paintings, and he collected the work of a few artists. When and how did you break into the art industry? I moved to New York in 1973, after I graduated. I met all these great New York artists, and they encouraged me to move to New York, and so I plunged into it.

Also, I won some wonderful awards early on. I was able to do public art for two years under the Cultural Council Foundation Artists Project. I did a huge mural at the World Trade Centre. I did other murals for schools, and I did paintings for churches. Was it hard breaking into the art scene? I am always suspicious of this word ‘breaking in’. I have always painted as hard as I worked all my life, I have met a lot of people. My brother worked for Andy Warhol, my cousin wrote the book ‘SlavesofNewYork’, I have met a lot of artists and I have seen New York since 1973, so I have seen all the Studio 54 years and all the changes and the art world is usually much smaller. I have always done what I do, and I have always been completely inspired by nature. In New York you are influenced by fashion, style. I have had so many celebrities photographed in front of my paintings; from Jennifer Lopez, to Sharon Stone. We have just had Beyoncé do a music video at one of my plantations for Lemonade. Doyoufeelliketechnologyhaschangedtheartindustry? The art fairs are in every country of the world, people are much more aware, the audience is a million times what it used to be. I mean, for instance, I have Instagram. I am forced into social media, and much more is okay today. For instance, I do fabrics and wallpaper, which used to be very frowned upon. Now if you go to a museum, you buy Andy Warhol underwear. What inspires your work? Do you feel that throughout your career your inspiration has changed? Early on, of course, it was the old masters. I always liked Van Gogh and people of that period. I am currently in love with academic 19th century painting and portraits. I collect a great deal of it. I love life-sized portraits from that century.

I am also doing sculptures now, which is something new for me. I am doing a 28ft sculpture in Louisiana for a butterfly park. I have done nine monumental sculptures so far. I love working on a large scale. What has been your biggest obstacle throughout your career? Keeping a large studio space has been my biggest obstacle. In New York, six of my studios have been torn down in the last 20 years. They just keep tearing down big buildings. I need a large elevator, and I need at least 25,000 sq ft to do my work and run my studio. I have 60 birds in my studio, mostly parrots and it gets very wild. Insanely wild. Whatwouldyousaywasthehighpointofyourcareer? There are so many different things that excite me. You know, getting grants early on, I was hired for an arts project and I got to make this huge mural at the World Trade Centre. I just did a huge project at the Hamilton in Washington DC. Big public projects excite me.

The high point for me is being able to do what I want to do, and wake up and paint everyday, and have the support that I need.