An eye peers from a goblet. A disembodied finger creeps from beneath a curtain. A supine figure, lost in a dream, envisions an uncanny array of game and fruit. For GaHee Park, landscapes, figures, and still lifes merge into seamless, surreal tableaux. Her signature glassy-eyed female characters move through spaces where the boundary between reality and fantasy blurs.
Park’s new solo exhibition, Soft Shell at Jessica Silverman, delves into a realm where protection and a sense of security are nebulous. Although she nods to domestic spaces and symbols of comfort and sustenance, such as bowls laden with fruit, there is always something… else.
At first glance, many of the scenes in Park’s oil paintings appear relaxed and calm, but something soon feels “off.” A dark cloud moves in above “Woman on the Beach with a Bird,” and an interloping digit advances toward a flower arrangement in “Bouquet with a Visitor.” Sometimes the strangeness is apparent right away, such as in “Soft Shell,” in which Park juxtaposes hard, distinct lines with supple, fuzzy shapes, and the whole scene appears to both expand and shrink.
The inspiration for this new body of work, along with the show’s title, is inspired by what the artist describes as “the containers of life that we inhabit to feel safe, but which do not protect us completely.” The artist explores the nature of consciousness and relationships between landscapes and interiors, beauty and the grotesque, and strength and vulnerability. Through a prism of dark humor, Park also infuses her works with subtle, quirky narratives.
In “Eating Angel,” for example, a white t-shirt and halo have been cast onto the floor, and a gleaming wing appears to have been picked clean by the curious cat. The nude female form, plus numerous anatomical hints in the shapes of fruit—or in this case, the breast-like cover on a food platter being presented from out of frame—Park also nods to the Surrealists. She turns the table on the early 20th-century works made predominantly by men, positioning women in roles of empowerment and directness. “Refusing to be conquered, these heroines are sly exhibitionists who draw the viewer into a ‘ping pong’ of gazes,” the gallery says.
Soft Shell continues through December 19 in San Francisco. Keep up with updates on Park’s Instagram.
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