Since opening its doors last fall, the Seimandi & Leprieur Gallery has almost primarily focused on art from the French-speaking Caribbean island of Martinique, the former home of its married directors. But the gallery deviates from that turf with the arrival of famed neo-expressionist painter Hunt Slonem, a seasoned New York–based artist best known for lavish depictions of bunnies, butterflies, and tropical birds.
Making his first appearance in Santa Barbara, Slonem will appear in the gallery on Friday, May 15, for a rare reception and book-signing. A small exhibition of his work, on one wall of the gallery, continues in the venue through June 7.
Born and raised in Maine, Slonem’s childhood was a roving one. His Navy officer father moved the family to several places in Hawai‘i and Central America, where Slonem was “influenced by the local devotion and spiritual fervor,” as he later explained.
Although steeped in the urban pace and density of life in N.Y.C., Slonem arrived at his mature artistic voice by channeling various interests in the natural and cultural worlds around him. The result is a unique style linked to the neo-expressionist movement, and with elements of textural abstraction and residual kitsch somehow filtered into the mix.
His choice of iconography has been dictated by various influences, including a bunny obsession following his discovery that he was born in the Chinese Year of the Rabbit. To date, his work has been shown in such prestigious venues as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Whitney, the Miróo Foundation, and the New Orleans Museum of Art.
The artist, who also has kept an extensive aviary of exotic birds, has said, “I would say my whole life could be summed up by the word ‘exotica.’” A review in The New York Times opined, “If Joseph Cornell had concentrated on painting, the results might have looked like this.” Famed poet and sometimes art critic John Ashbery once ascribed Slonem’s art as “dazzling explosions of the variable life around us.”
In some way, Slonem’s cerebral yet ceremonial tropical exotica has a place in the Caribbean aesthetic, after all.
An Evening with Hunt Slonem takes place on May 15, 4-8 p.m., at Seimandi & Leprieur Gallery (33 W. Anapamu St.). The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited and RSVPs are requested by emailing sb@Seimandileprieur.com or visiting seimandileprieur.com. For more information about the artist, visit huntslonem.com.
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