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John Zabawa is a multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. His work spans an array of mediums including painting, illustration, music, and graphic design. He works in both figurative and abstract expressions, and offers his Gateway paintings – a series of diptychs combining two blocks of warm colour – as a glimpse into his thought process. “These works represent the way I think when making paintings,” he says. “I think of colours as emotions, and by combining them, I’m able to explore a feeling or emotional state in which I want to paint. Painting abstractly or figuratively is only a tool I use to convey a feeling within a picture.”

After graduating from high school, Zabawa moved to Chicago to study at Columbia College Chicago, where he immersed himself in graphic design, fine art, and industrial design. “Studying design has influenced my art practice. It gives me perspective and understanding about process, methodology, and conceptual thinking,” he says. He held his first show of paintings in Chicago in 2018, titled So Many People, before moving to Los Angeles, where he now lives and works. The abundant plant life there has since found its way into his work, including the distinctive form of eucalyptus leaves. “There are so many eucalyptus trees near my home” he says. “I’ve become enamoured with them. I’m obsessed with their geometry. It’s poetry how that tree grows. I think being inspired by flora is something many Angelenos can relate to.”