Hunt Slonem is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker. He is best known for his Neo-Expressionist paintings of butterflies, bunnies, and his tropical birds, often based on a personal aviary in which he has been keeping from 30 to over 100 live birds of various species. 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. 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, where early works were exhibited, thrusting him into the city’s explosive contemporary art 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.. Slonem’s works can be found in the permanent collections of more than 300 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. Just some of his numerous books and monographs include: Bunnies (G Editions, 2014), Birds (G Editions, 2017) and Hunt Slonem: An Art Rich and Strange (Harry N. Abrams, 2002).British writer Matthew Wilson is a teacher of History of Art and a freelance writer on cultural topics for (amongst others) the BBC, Aesthetica Magazine, and Smarthistory: The world's most-visited art historical website. His book, Symbols in Art was published by Thames & Hudson in 2020.Carlo McCormick is a the highly recognized American culture critic and curator living in New York City. He is the author of numerous books, including Buff Monster: Stay Melty (Ginko Press/2021). He was previously Senior Editor of Paper magazine. He lectures and teaches extensively and his writing has appeared in magazines such as Aperture, Art in America, Art News, Artforum, Spin, among others. He was the guest curator of the exhibition “The Downtown Show: The New York Art scene from 1974 to 1984,” which traveled nationwide and was chosen as first-place winner by the International Association of Art Critics for best thematic show in New York City in 2005-2006.
