Artist: Jonathan Antos

Date: 2023

Dimensions: 15" x 24"

Medium: Oil and Acrylic Marker on Paper

Jon Antos is a visual artist from Chicago. Pulling from everyday habits to former encounters, his work explores queerness - particularly his own - through the lens of memory, sexual exploration, and surveillance. Through the art of bright vivid self portraiture, Jon creates scenes of mundane tasks and previous sexual experiences when he was an avid cruiser.
In his work, public spaces are more than areas of transition.
Public bathrooms, stairwells, and locker rooms became meeting grounds of sexual freedom and desire. Every figure seen in the pieces are of the artist's likeness, representing the multiple roles he played during these encounters. In contrast to the scenes of hypersexuality are ones of mundane daily tasks, such as sleeping or getting dressed. Each of these scenes depict Jon's unidealized form as it exists today, creating a sense of fluidity between time. These private moments are times of reset, ready to perform again, or an attempt to regain normalcy, but still seeking the need to be watched and admired.
High contrasting bright colors, like acid yellows and electric blues, are used throughout the body of work. They emphasize the body in different ways - from excitement, desire, and passion, to detachment, shame, and emptiness.
Through his work, Jon aims to create a space where non-conventional sexual behaviors and unidealized forms are showcased and celebrated, while also remaining truthful on what emotions can come along with presenting them.