JOHNNY DEPP, THE BUNNYMAN
THE BUNNYMAN, 2026
White Bronze
200 x 80 x 80 cm
In 2026, the Sigg Art Foundation and Pantheon Art co-produced Johnny Depp’s The Bunnyman, his first sculpture. Cast in white bronze and standing two metres tall, the work gives permanent form to a figure that has appeared throughout Depp’s paintings, drawings, and prints for over two decades.
Presented at the Modern Art Museum Shanghai and subsequently at the 21st edition of Contemporary Istanbul, The Bunnyman marks the transition of a recurring character in Depp’s artistic practice into monumental sculpture.
The Bunnyman: From Childhood Dreams to Sculpture
The origins of The Bunnyman stem from childhood imaginings & dreams.
Johnny Depp’s journey into creating The Bunnyman began with a simple sketch by his 5-year-old son Jack. Inspired by this innocent doodle, Depp reimagined the figure. As the character took shape, he was reminded of a recurring childhood dream in which he saw a figure standing in the doorway to his basement, motionless, yet with a fluid sand-like aura. Weaving together these two inspirations, The Bunnyman was created.
Since his inception, The Bunnyman has grown into a kaleidoscopic entity, donning many guises, spanning reality and imagination. He is at once a fearsome vision, a friend, a guardian, a warrior. Depp sees him standing with a sword of truth, guarding the heart. Despite his multifaceted persona, The Bunnyman is always portrayed standing unwaveringly in the same pose, symbolising resilience amid transformation.
Rooted in family bonds and creativity, The Bunnyman has evolved into more than just a character; he has come to symbolise both Depp and his artwork. Acting as a continuous thread throughout Depp’s art, reappearing in various other forms over time, including as the iconography behind his stamp of authenticity.
“When people see The Bunnyman — they always ask the same question: where did it come from?” – Johnny Depp
Material and Process
The integrity of the clay model was a condition of the commission. Depp worked the original in clay; each thumbprint and compressed edge belonged to the final form. The production team made a three-dimensional digital scan of that model and sent it to Fonderia Artistica Battaglia in Milan with a single instruction: preserve the surface as the hand left it.
White bronze answered both a material requirement and an aesthetic one. Where traditional bronze develops a unified patina over time, white bronze remains reflective, holding the marks of the original clay legible in the cast: the pressure of a thumb, the drag of a finger across wet material. The surface changes with the light: in direct sun it reads bright and liquid; in shadow, grey and granular. What the artist’s hand put into the clay, the bronze holds.
The Sigg Art Foundation brought the institutional framework the project needed: experience in large-scale sculptural commissions, including a sculpture park in Le Castellet and an artist residency programme in Saudi Arabia. Working alongside Pantheon Art and Fonderia Artistica Battaglia, the Foundation translated Depp’s vision into cast bronze.
Johnny Depp and Pierre Sigg met in AlUla. That meeting opened the collaboration. Pierre Sigg, whose collection sits at the intersection of painting and digital culture, found in The Bunnyman a work of a different register: handmade, private, decades in the making.
MODERN ART MUSEUM SHANGHAI
15 Aug - 13 Dec 2026
A Bunch of Stuff: Figures of the Fringe
The Bunnyman sculpture is the centerpiece of Figures of the Fringe, Depp’s first major exhibition in China. The show at the Modern Art Museum Shanghai brings together over 200 works from his practice, spanning paintings, drawings, collages, screen prints, and immersive installations, and examines the boundary between public persona and private artistic life.
CONTEMPORARY ISTANBUL
22 - 27 Sept 2026
21ST EDITION, TERSANE
The Bunnyman made its public debut as a sculpture at Contemporary Istanbul’s 21st edition, presented outdoors at Tersane Istanbul, the historic Ottoman shipyard on the Golden Horn. The two-metre white bronze stood in open air as one of the fair’s special projects, alongside an international programme of galleries and institutions. The Sigg Art Foundation has participated in Contemporary Istanbul since the 20th edition in 2025, when Pierre Sigg joined the fair’s Executive Board.