Hunt Slonem's Menagerie Holds Court At Eckert Fine Art

December 11 may have been a rainy, dreary mess of a day, but there couldn’t have been a cheerier, more colorful place to lighten one’s spirits than at Eckert Fine Art, located in the MASS MoCA complex in North Adams. Walking into the opening of “Gate Keeper: The Art of Hunt Slonem,” visitors visibly brightened as they found themselves surrounded by canvases of all shapes and sizes featuring Hunt Slonem’s vibrant bunnies and birds. The artist is known as much as a collector of mansions, former plantations and other cavernous spaces (the most recent, the Searles Castle in Great Barrington) as he is for his bunnies, butterflies, exotic flowers and birds (he’s owned hundreds of the feathered creatures). Slonem, clad in a paisley shirt and non-matchy-matchy paisley sport coat, held court in the center of the gallery, signing books and graciously conversing with attendees on subjects ranging from where he finds his antiques for his properties to why he incorporates horizontal grooves in his bird paintings. When the COVID quarantine redux becomes too much to bear, it’s worth donning your N95 to take a trip to the whimsical exhibit that — fair warning — will make you want a bunny, either one of Slonem’s, or the live thing. The exhibit runs through Jan. 15, 2022.