Hunt Slonem Rings in 2025 with New Dan's Cover Art

As the clock struck midnight and the world inhaled the promise of another year, there exists a certain breed of creator whose every brushstroke feels like a toast to existence itself. Enter this week’s Dan’s Papers (and this month’s Dan’s Papers Palm Beach) cover artist Hunt Slonem — the exuberant conjurer of color, the maestro of maximalism and the man who paints rabbits like they owe him rent. In these early days of the new year, as resolutions teeter on the edge of ambition and habit, Slonem stands as a living testament that life, like art, is best lived in bold hues and unapologetic repetition.

There’s something deliciously audacious about Slonem’s work — an aesthetic rebellion against the beige monotony of the modern world. His canvases drip with opulence, an intoxicating symphony of color and texture that would make even the most stoic minimalist clutch their pearls. Butterflies, bunnies and exotic birds erupt across his works in a dazzling, kinetic dance, each a talisman of his enchanted worldview. They are not mere subjects but recurring mantras, painted with the fervor of a man in constant dialogue with beauty itself.

As this new year unfolds, we find ourselves craving exactly that — a visceral, unapologetic embrace of beauty. We are weary of grayscale ambitions and muted dreams. Hunt Slonem beckons us into a world where every corner hums with possibility, where the walls themselves whisper in technicolor, and where aesthetic excess is not a sin but a sacrament. His sense of color is not simply impeccable — it is instinctual, as if he were born with an internal compass perpetually pointing toward opulence. He layers paint the way some of us layer our intentions — thick, deliberate and purposeful — until it becomes almost a relief, both tactile and spiritual.

Slonem’s practice of repetition, far from being monotonous, feels like a ritualistic offering to the gods of creativity. His famous rabbits, multiplied ad infinitum, mirror our own cycles of renewal. Each one is a breath, a pulse, a reminder that in the infinite, we find both comfort and challenge. What better metaphor for the turning of the year? In every iteration, Slonem asks us to reconsider the familiar, to revisit our surroundings and ourselves with fresh eyes, to seek newness within the old.

Let this be an ode to the year in motion, inspired by the unbridled exuberance of Hunt Slonem. May we dare to paint our days in broad strokes of crimson and gold. May we cultivate beauty not as an indulgence but as a necessity. Let our lives be layered, textured and defiantly vibrant. Like Slonem’s gilded aviaries and rabbit-haunted dreamscapes, let us create spaces — both physical and emotional — that celebrate abundance, eccentricity and joy.

In a world often obsessed with stripping things down to their bare bones, Slonem reminds us that sometimes, the answer lies in adding more — more color, more texture, more life. This year, let’s embrace the maximalist manifesto: to live richly, love wildly and create fearlessly. Here’s to a year as resplendent and unapologetic as a Hunt Slonem canvas—vivid, lavish, and gloriously alive.

This cover art comes by way of DTR Modern Galleries in NYC, Palm Beach, Boston and Washington DC. Learn more at dtrmodern.com.