The Exotic World of Hunt Elephant: Painting Automatic translate

The Russian Academy of Arts, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and Serge Sorokko Gallery (San Francisco, USA) present a large-scale exhibition project by Hunt Slonema, one of the most prominent representatives of American neo-expressionism since the late 1970s. Within the framework of the first Slonem exhibition in Russia, 34 works from the most important artist cycles created over the past ten years will be shown. The delivery of Slonem’s works to Moscow is carried out by Serge Sorokko Gallery, which played a key role in organizing the first cultural exchanges between the United States and post-Soviet Russia, including the holding of an exhibition of New York artists in Moscow in 1989.

Hunt Elephant was born in Kittery, Maine, in 1951. He grew up in an artistic environment: his grandfather, an amateur artist, instilled in him a love of painting. Father Slonema was a naval officer, and the worldview of the future artist was formed in frequent trips to America. For example, living with a family in the Hawaiian Islands significantly influenced his perception of color and nature.

At sixteen, the Elephant took part in a student exchange program and spent 6 months in Nicaragua. Returning to the United States, he entered Vanderbilt University in Nashville, but soon moved to Mexico, where he continued his studies at the University of Las Americas in Cholula. The bachelor of arts from the Faculty of Painting and Art History received the Elephant at Tulane University in New Orleans. However, the Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Skauhigen, Maine had the greatest influence on the artist’s further career - there he met and made friends with such masters of American art as Louise Nevelson, Alex Katz, Richard Estes and Jack Levin. At about the same time, for reasons related to numerology, the Elephant changed the letter “and” to the letter “e” in his last name and in 1973 moved to Manhattan, where he lives to this day.

Slonem’s creative career began in New York in the mid-1970s. Once, when a novice artist worked part-time in painting lessons, a friend called the artist Janet Fish called him. She informed him that she was leaving all summer, and offered her workshop for free for three months. The elephant immediately agreed; He soon received a grant for painters from the Montreal Foundation Elizabeth Greenshields and was completely immersed in painting. His first solo exhibition was held at the New York Harold Reed Gallery in 1977. This was followed by a project at the prestigious Manhattan Fischbach Gallery. The critics did not wait long for the critics to succeed. He was surrounded by such representatives of the American creative elite as Andy Warhol, Lisa Minnelli, Sylvia Miles, Truman Capote, Monica van Vuren, Henry Gelzedaler and Tama Janowitz.

Despite living in downtown Manhattan, the Elephant retained its love of “exotic” inspired by childhood and youthful travel experiences. He is attracted to everything mysterious, unfamiliar, and he still looks at the world with a fresh look. More than 100 tropical birds live in his workshop. Slonem’s work is identified with exoticism, and in it the artist finds his inspiration.

This fall, the Moscow audience will be presented at the exhibition paintings from his most famous cycles: butterflies, birds, flowers and rabbits - wonderful examples of his work, combining elements of pop art and figurative expressionism. Repeatedly repeated, vivid and sensual images - a technique that goes into obsession for Slonem.

Since 1977, the personal exhibitions of Hunt Slonema have been held in museums and galleries in many countries. His works could be seen in Paris, Stockholm, Madrid, Oslo, Cologne, Venice, Tokyo and Hong Kong. He has exhibited at the Museo Diocesano d’arte sacra Sant’Apollonia in Italy, the Albany Museum of Art, the Alexandria Museum of Art, the Art Museum of the Regiment, the Marlborough Gallery and the Serge Sorocco Gallery in the USA, the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, the Salvador Art Museum.

Hunt Slonem’s works are featured in major world museums and galleries: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, USA), Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Gallery of Art (Washington, USA), the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, USA), Art Museum of New Orleans (USA), Joan Miró Foundation (Barcelona, ​​Spain), Musée d’Art Moderne (Paris, France), Würth Museum (Künzelsau, Germany), Istanbul Museum of Modern Art (Turkey), Museo de Arte de El Salvador (San Salvador, Salvador).

Among the many private collectors of Slonem’s works are a disproportionate number of Hollywood representatives, including Sharon Stone, Gina Gershon, Brooke Shields, Julianne Moore, Mandy Moore and Kate Hudson.

O Serge Sorokko Gallery

Serge Sorokko Gallery, organizer of the first Russian Slonem exhibition, was founded in 1984. Over the years of its existence, she hosted the work of such famous artists as Damien Hirst, Saul Le Witt, Donald Sultan, Sean Scully, Anthony Tapies, Yannis Kunellis and Ross Blackner.

The gallery also successfully engages in publishing. Her projects include a portfolio of artists such as Yuri Cooper, as well as a collection of photographs printed for the Brooklyn Academy of Music: BAM Photography Portfolio I, II and III. They include the works of Annie Leibovitz, Richard Avedon, John Baldessari, Candida Hofer and many others.

The owner and founder of the gallery Serge Sorocco is the owner of numerous international awards for his contribution to art, including the Order of Arts and Literature (France). He is familiar and has been working with Hunt Elephant for over 20 years. United by a common goal of caring for art, the Russian Academy of Arts, MMOMA and Serge Sorokko Gallery are confident that this artist’s exhibition in Moscow is an important step for the development of cultural cooperation between the USA and Russia. It is planned to open the catalog in Russian and English languages ​​by the opening (Glitterati Publishing House, New York).