Painter and printmaker Hunt Slonem was born July 18, 1951 in Kittery, Maine. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Tulane University of Louisiana in 1973, and also studied painting at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1972. A versatile, Neo-Expressionst artist who combines abstract expressionism, symbolism, and representational imagery, he is best known for his paintings of tropical birds, drawn from live specimens in his private aviary where he cares for about 100 birds of varying species. Slonem's fascination with what he refers to as "exotica" can be traced to his experiences as a child in Hawaii and as a foreign exchange student in Managua, Nicaragua.

In 1976 Slonem received an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant to study painting in Montreal, Canada. This allowed Slonem to quit his job as an art teacher and focus entirely on art, building a body of work for his his first solo show, in 1977, at the Harold Reed Gallery in New York. This led to a major exhibition of his work the following year at the noted Fischbach Gallery, also in New York. Since then, Slonem has had over 150 solo exhibitions in the U.S., South America, Europe, Russia, and Japan.

Over 50 museums include his work in their collections throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, Funacio Joan Miro (Spain), the Würth Museum (Germany), and many others.