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GaHee Park’s solo exhibition “Soft Shell” is on view at Jessica Silverman in San Francisco through Dec. 19, 2026. The oil paintings combine figures, landscapes and still lifes, using domestic imagery and unsettling details to explore vulnerability, protection and the gaze.
Artist GaHee Park’s solo exhibition “Soft Shell” is on view at Jessica Silverman in San Francisco through Dec. 19, 2026, bringing together oil paintings that merge figures, landscapes and still lifes into surreal scenes. The exhibition’s shifting domestic settings and uncanny details frame questions about security, vulnerability and the limits of protection.
Park’s paintings often place glassy-eyed female figures in scenes that initially appear calm, then reveal an interruption: a dark cloud over a beach, a finger appearing beneath a curtain, or an eye peering from a goblet. In “Bouquet with a Visitor” (2026), a digit approaches a flower arrangement; “Woman on the Beach with a Bird” introduces a cloud above its apparently restful setting. These details turn familiar arrangements into places of unease without abandoning their composed surfaces.
The exhibition includes works such as “Soft Shell” (2026), an oil painting on linen measuring 16 by 20 inches, and “Eating Angel” (2026), which measures 90 by 72 inches. In the latter, a white T-shirt and halo lie on the floor while a cat appears to have picked at a gleaming wing. Other listed paintings include “Dream of a Bird,” “Fish Bowl with Fruits,” “Faces with Frog and Tadpoles” and “Landscape in Eyes.”
The gallery describes Park’s female characters as heroines who resist being conquered and draw viewers into a “ping pong” of gazes. That characterization is the gallery’s interpretation of the work. The source report says Park’s paintings also use dark humor and anatomical suggestions in forms such as fruit and a breast-like cover on a food platter. The exhibition is open in San Francisco until Dec. 19.
How Park Reframes the Surrealist Gaze
“Soft Shell” places a contemporary artist’s women at the center of scenes that mix beauty with discomfort. The source report connects Park’s use of nude figures and anatomical forms to Surrealist imagery, while noting that she positions women as direct and empowered rather than simply as objects for viewing. The gallery’s account of a “ping pong” of gazes describes how the figures return or redirect the viewer’s attention.
The exhibition’s domestic references also make its central tension legible: bowls of fruit, flowers and interiors can suggest comfort, but the paintings unsettle that expectation. Their small intrusions and shifting forms ask how secure a familiar space or image can feel. The works offer viewers a visual language for that tension, rather than presenting a literal narrative or a single explanation.
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The Ideas Behind ‘Soft Shell’
Park says the exhibition title draws on “the containers of life that we inhabit to feel safe, but which do not protect us completely.” The quotation, reported by Colossal, gives the show’s recurring images of interiors and domestic objects a stated conceptual frame: shelter may provide a sense of safety without guaranteeing it.
Across the exhibition, Park brings together landscapes, figures and still lifes rather than keeping them in separate categories. The source report describes her interests as including consciousness, relationships between interiors and landscapes, beauty and the grotesque, and strength and vulnerability. It also notes her use of subtly comic narratives, including the cat and apparently eaten angelic wing in “Eating Angel.”
““the containers of life that we inhabit to feel safe, but which do not protect us completely.””
— GaHee Park, as quoted in the Colossal report
What the Exhibition Listing Leaves Open
The available report identifies the venue, selected paintings, materials and closing date, but does not provide a full exhibition checklist, visitor information or details about related events. It also does not include a direct explanation from Park for each individual painting. The gallery’s reading of the figures is attributed to the gallery and should not be treated as a confirmed account of every viewer’s response.
The source describes the figures’ eyes as glassy and the scenes as surreal, but does not set out a single definitive meaning for their recurring objects or interruptions. Interpretations of those details remain open; the reported exhibition materials do not establish that every image corresponds to a specific real-life event or story.
The Exhibition Runs Through December
“Soft Shell” remains on view at Jessica Silverman in San Francisco through Dec. 19, 2026. The source report does not list further exhibition dates or programming. Visitors seeking current access details or any changes to the gallery schedule can check Jessica Silverman’s latest information; the report also points readers to Park’s Instagram for updates.
Key Questions
Where is GaHee Park’s “Soft Shell” exhibition?
It is on view at Jessica Silverman in San Francisco, according to the source report.
When does “Soft Shell” close?
The exhibition continues through Dec. 19, 2026.
What does Park mean by “Soft Shell”?
Park describes the title through “the containers of life that we inhabit to feel safe, but which do not protect us completely.” The report presents this as her framing of the show’s concerns with safety and vulnerability.
What kinds of paintings are in the exhibition?
The show includes oil paintings on linen that combine figures, landscapes and still lifes. Listed works include “Eating Angel,” “Bouquet with a Visitor,” “Fish Bowl with Fruits” and “Faces with Frog and Tadpoles.”
Source: thisiscolossal.com
