Hunt Slonem is an American painter and sculptor renowned for his richly textured, nature-inspired works, reflecting a lifelong fascination with exotic environments and living creatures. Early experiences in Hawaii, Central America, Nicaragua, and Mexico fostered a deep and enduring reverence for tropical landscapes and the natural world—an influence that continues to shape his artistic vision.
Slonem studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and earned his degree in painting and art history from Tulane University in New Orleans. After settling in New York City in the early 1970s, he developed a distinctive practice that quickly gained recognition, launching a career spanning more than five decades, with works now held in major museum and private collections worldwide.
This exhibition marks a defining moment in Slonem’s career—one he has envisioned for decades—bringing his work into a living garden at monumental scale and realizing a lifelong pursuit to unite art and nature.
ICONIC MUSES
Slonem is best known for his recurring cast of animal muses: bunnies, tropical birds, and butterflies. Drawn from the mythological and spiritual symbolism attributed to animals across cultures, these creatures appear throughout his work as more than decorative motifs—they are vehicles for contemplation, wonder, and meaning.
His fascination with birds began in childhood in Hawaii and deepened during his time in Central America, where he was moved by the spiritual devotion he witnessed. As an adult, Slonem began keeping exotic birds as companions in his New York studio, where they remain constant presences—fluttering and calling as he works. This lived intimacy with his subjects lends his depictions an energy that goes beyond observation, reflecting a genuine and ongoing relationship with the natural world.
SPIRITUALITY & SYMBOLISM
A contemplative spiritual practice is central to Slonem’s daily life and artistic process. He begins each day with prayer and meditation before turning to his work—a ritual that mirrors the repetitive, devotional quality of the paintings themselves. This discipline is not incidental; it is the foundation from which his imagery grows.
Each iteration of a bunny, bird, or butterfly is individually rendered, contributing to a cumulative effect that rewards close observation. His use of vivid, saturated color evokes a dreamlike atmosphere, capturing what he describes as the ephemeral beauty and mystery of the natural world. The same principles of accumulation and material richness carry into his sculptures, where thousands of hand-applied pieces of glass create luminous, tactile surfaces.
Animals, florals, and natural forms appear throughout art history as carriers of spiritual meaning, and Slonem consciously engages with this tradition. His depictions of flowers, like those of his birds and bunnies, carry layered symbolic resonance in the choice of subject, arrangement, and color. His studio, filled with antique objects, living birds, and his own vivid canvases, functions as both workspace and sanctuary, a physical environment where creativity and spiritual life are inseparable.
NEW WORKS
In 2020, a period of global pause created an unexpected departure from Hunt Slonem’s typically fast-paced studio rhythm, offering a rare window for sustained reflection and experimentation. Within this shift, Slonem turned toward new materials and processes, initiating a significant expansion of his practice.
The genesis of his garden exhibition can be traced to a blown glass bunny sculpture created at his Seattle studio. Translating one of his most iconic painted subjects into luminous, dimensional form, the work marked a pivotal moment. What began as a single exploration quickly unfolded into a broader investigation across media.
Slonem’s visual language extended into bronze, neon, steel, and mosaic glass, each material providing a new framework through which to reinterpret his enduring motifs of bunnies, birds, and butterflies. These works deepen his ongoing meditation on repetition, pattern, and the natural world, while reimagining them within a sculptural context.
FROM CANVAS TO GARDEN
The sculptures in Hunt Slonem: Bunnies, Birds & Butterflies represent the fullest expression of the artist’s world brought into dialogue with the living landscape of the Dallas Arboretum. His iconic animal subjects inhabit the garden at a monumental scale, inviting visitors into an immersive environment shaped by the wonder and reverence for nature at the heart of his practice.
Produced across an expansive range of media, these works translate the layered, color-saturated energy of his paintings into sculptural form. The result is an experience that is at once playful and profound—a landscape transformed by the same imagination that has animated Slonem’s work for over half a century. Bold color, rhythmic pattern, and reflective surfaces create a visual energy that shifts with changing light and perspective.
Set among seasonal blooms and historic vistas, the sculptures encourage visitors to slow down, look closely, and experience art as something dynamic and alive. For Slonem, this exhibition is not a departure, but an arrival—the realization of a vision long held.
By integrating art into its 66-acre landscape, the Dallas Arboretum advances its mission of inspiring connection through beauty, education, and nature. The garden becomes more than a setting; it becomes an active participant in how the work is seen and felt—an open-air gallery unlike anything Dallas has experienced before. A garden in bloom. A gallery alive.
“Botanical gardens fascinate me. Nature is just embedded in my soul. I’m thrilled to have the blank slate of a garden to mix my art in with. It’s a project that I’ve wanted to do forever. This is the first time I’ve been able to produce work to fulfill the dream.”
