David Michael Slonim's newest works whimsically put on display the internal contradictions of what it means to be human: vanity and vulnerability, pathos and playfulness, anxiety and joy. Whether barely suggesting a figure or spoofing classical portraiture, Slonim's art celebrates the complex and sometimes comical facets of our shared experience.
Slonim calls these works “anthropomorphic abstracts.”
Blending the influences of 20th century masters like Picasso, Miro, and Guston with his love for animation, the Muppets, and the guileless freedom of young children's drawings exemplified by masters like Chagall and Dubuffet, David juxtaposes the sophisticated color and texture for which he is known with whimsical shapes and human features. His unique mingling of formality and lightheartedness gives playful expression to the internal incongruities we all feel at times.
After earning a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1988, Slonim began as a freelance illustrator, later gaining national recognition as a landscape painter in the late 1990s. Since transitioning to abstraction in 2014, his work has been exhibited in prominent galleries across the United States, including in New York, Boston, Jackson Hole, and Denver, in addition to several solo museum and university exhibitions. Slonim has also been widely recognized for his work as a childrens' author and illustrator, including by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly.