New Paintings by John Zabawa

Many of the paintings in a newly released collection by John Zabawa were made in MacArthur Park during the sessions for his Gateways show at Francis Gallery, in the spring and summer of 2021.

“During those seasons I was painting rigorously, not thinking about the show so much, just focusing on painting. I believe that you shouldn’t edit or curate yourself when you’re creating. I’ve found what works for me is to just paint and save that part of the process for the end, to avoid limiting myself too soon. When it started getting closer to the show, there were a few paintings I considered including but they felt special or unique from the rest. They were the outsiders, so to speak, from the group. I ended up keeping them in my studio to live with, until now.

“Clouds, is one of the few large paintings I've ever made. A friend of mine gave me the canvas after he found it on the street in West Hollywood. There are only two other large works I’ve made at this scale; one belongs to a good friend of mine back home in Chicago and the other, Stones No.05, from my first show So Many People in Chicago, belongs to another close friend in Los Angeles. I enjoy not knowing what is going to come next and I think this is an opportunity to share with people what I consider to be the B sides of Gateways – a deeper look at the time I spent on my first exhibition with Francis Gallery.”