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. Inspired by nature and his pet birds, 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 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. 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 he currently lives, and where early works were exhibited, 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.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). His studios and homes have been profiled in numerous books, as well.