Jan Simonds (b. 1997) completed his BFA at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. His drawings are expulsions of love and anxiety, translating his American and Slovak background and the conflict of his queer identity into contemplations of longing, and peaking stress. His work attempts to simultaneously establish and subvert the context of its subjects with a disquieting camp sensibility. He references imagery and composition from Slovak folk art, 16th-century painting, brutalist architecture, medieval catholic relics, and fashion photography. Recent solo exhibitions indignity at Turley Gallery in Hudson, New York (2023). His work has been featured in Chicago group exhibitions at Sulk, Heaven Gallery, and The Latent Space.