I came across the work of John Zabawa this morning, and instantly fell for his simple, playful shapes and bold colour waves. The L.A. based artist/graphic designer’s work is reminiscent of the bright cutouts Matisse made in his last decade. Jean Arp is an influence, too. Negative space –– the Japanese aesthetic principle of ma –– is central to Zabawa’s approach. “I love thinking of negative space as a tool when composing. I experience blank canvas fear all the time; approaching a new painting is always an exciting, scary feeling, and thinking about negative space in this way is very freeing.”