John Zabawa at NADA New York: A Quiet Force

There is a particular kind of presence that announces itself without spectacle or urgency. John Zabawa has spent years in pursuit of it — in the movement of a deep pond distilled to its essential forms, in the ambient glow of a Californian hillside at dusk, in the intimate weight of a piece of fruit.

A Quiet Force, Zabawa's latest body of work for NADA New York, finds its origin in the artist’s recent trip to Kyoto. Weathered Door at Kyoto (2026) emerged from wandering the historic district of Gion, where Zabawa encountered a time-worn wooden door set into a distinctly modern building — preserved, across generations, as if by quiet consensus. The image stayed with him: a threshold held open between past and present, old grain against clean concrete. Another work, Temple Door at Kyoto (2026) finds its source in the sliding doors of Saihō-ji Temple — adorned with abstract, gold-leafed collages — which offers a passage, one between the material and the devotional.

A threshold does not announce itself. It simply holds open the pivotal space between.

Water, a recurring motif in Zabawa's paintings, carries the same powerful patience. In Pond at Night (2025) and Lily Pond (2026), he studies the relationship between a pond's mirrored surface and what lies beneath — another threshold, containing the full range and weight of emotions, without disturbing the water.

While other works find their origin in Japan, Asian Pears (2026) exists as a welcome surprise. This depiction of Asian pears carries personal memories for the artist, and nods to his Korean lineage. It is painted as an act of return. The fruit, like the door preserved in Gion, holds something of the past gently in place.

The Gaze (2026) turns further inward, drawing on the legend of Bodhidharma, said to have faced a cave wall in silent meditation for nine years, until the boundary between observer and observed dissolved entirely. In Zabawa's hands, presence is never declared; it is felt.