HUNT SLONEM NEW PATHS

Hunt Slonem, the colorful monarch and jubilant mastermind artist in an imaginative land of butterflies, birds, and bunnies heralds a new decree of three-dimensional artworks that dazzle, entertain, and astonish.

Whipping the viewer into an ecstasy of artistic bliss, his new sculpture collection in “HUNT SLONEM: Through the Looking Glass” at New River Fine Art is a diverse mixture of ornate blue-chip craftmanship populated by Gothic Pop Art pageantry.

Hunt achieves a new level of mischievous maturity, evolving beyond the painterly renditions of his favorite flora and fauna. He embarks on a journey that explores eccentric airs of contemporary art making. “Through the Looking Glass” shatters the procedural mold and ventures into an uncharted territory of sculptural fabrications, propelling his art into a new, refreshing, and appealing realm of glass ears, bright lights, glowing fur, and polished bronze.

This migration to a more ultramodern and state-of-the-art fashion pleasantly persuades the viewer to follow him into an edgy yet frolicsome kingdom of chic studio production. Not knowing where this psychedelic Hunt-hole ends, viewers are showered with multiplications and proliferations that are tremendously elegant. Reactions are instantaneous as we bask in his new regales of audacious macrocosms guided by his ingenuity and technique.

Shifting paradigms of art market sustainability seem to fluctuate from brick and mortar to Online Viewing Rooms, and back again. However, Hunt Slonem, an artist whose credibility reflects over 40 years of museum and gallery exhibitions holds onto his title of merry maestro by using 2020’s unique pandemically influenced proxemics to refocus, retool and launch his new collection and he chose South Florida as the launch site.

In Slonem’s Salon Collection, ornately baroque frames adorn the protruding bunny bust portraits…or is it the other way around? Fragile sensibilities of material are juxtaposed by ludicrously portrayed aristocracy.

Neither gaudy nor kitschy, the immeasurable depictions are golden in their delightful executions.

“Silk Road”, one of the larger paintings in the Through the Looking Glass exhibition delivers a signature Slonem appeal. This 61 x 77-inch oil on canvas painting exemplifies the dynamic allure of the vibrant butterflies. Three compositional layers create a transcendental magnetism.  The color swatches are overflowing with thousands of monkey eyes that stare from the jungles, fixated on our very presence as we maneuver around in their world. Butterflies drift and frolic among the bold and bright colors, providing a roving rhythm to the linear boundaries underneath.

In “Blizzard”, a 50 x 60-inch oil on canvas harnesses the notion that less is more. The dozen plus white rabbits huddle together in a bunny bacchanalia. Gestural outlines define the subjects. Drawn in a very rhythmic course, Hunt seemingly channels the late de Kooning and his abstract expressions. The play of foreground and background is a push and pull compatibility. “Blizzard” is a calligraphic flurry of black lines that grace the minimalist aesthetic.

“After Glow Neon Bunny” and “Go Play Neon Bunny” are two six-foot neon sculptures that glow with an aura of playful and luminescent radiance. The neon bunnies are lambent lonesome lodestars, navigating through the three-dimensional repertoire. Larger than life, the Hunt-esque rabbits stand erect like facetious chaperons of this new Hyper-Wonderland. 

In American Art and American Literature, rabbits are often used as a symbol of fertility or rebirth. The species' role as a prey animal with few defenses evokes vulnerability and innocence. Hence, the rabbit in Slonem’s new collection is the perfect visual paradigm and animal personification to explore because Hunt and his audiences alike are fully aware of this animal’s unique historical relevance and symbolic attributes.

Is this a metaphorical rebirth of Hunt Slonem’s vocation?

Absolutely!

Is this commandeered studio production a flawless allegory of the rabbit’s reproductive nuances?

Certainly!

The calculated renaissance to this perfect storm of three dimensionality is the fact that Slonem owns the revival by exposing his artistic susceptibilities and recalculates a new simplicity that is worlds apart from the abstract expressionistic practices.

The rabbit abides…

-Lisa Burgess