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GaHee Park’s solo exhibition “Soft Shell” presents new oil paintings at Jessica Silverman in San Francisco, with the show running through Dec. 19, 2026. The works place female figures, domestic objects and surreal intrusions in scenes that explore the uncertain promise of safety and protection.
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 combine female figures, domestic still lifes and unsettling surreal details. The exhibition centers on the uncertain protection offered by the spaces and objects people rely on to feel safe.
In the paintings, scenes that initially appear calm are interrupted by strange intrusions. A dark cloud gathers above a woman on a beach, a finger emerges beneath a curtain in “Bouquet with a Visitor,” and an eye peers from a goblet. Park brings landscapes, figures and still lifes together in tableaux where ordinary domestic imagery sits alongside the uncanny.
The exhibition includes works made in oil on linen, among them “Soft Shell” (2026), “Eating Angel” (2026), “Dream of a Bird” (2026) and “Faces with Frog and Tadpoles” (2026). The source report describes Park’s recurring female characters as glassy-eyed and places them in settings where the line between reality and fantasy is blurred. In “Eating Angel,” a white T-shirt and halo lie on the floor while a cat appears to have picked at a wing.
Park’s imagery draws on symbols of comfort and sustenance, including fruit and bowls, but complicates their reassuring associations with anatomical forms, unexpected visitors and visual distortions. The paintings also use dark humor and subtle narratives, according to the report on the exhibition.
Safety and Unease in Park’s Paintings
The exhibition’s central concern is the gap between feeling protected and actually being safe. Its title refers to what Park describes as “the containers of life that we inhabit to feel safe, but which do not protect us completely.” That idea connects the paintings’ domestic references to their less comfortable details: a familiar room or bowl of fruit can become a setting for vulnerability, threat or strange transformation.
The work also reframes surrealist imagery through its treatment of women. Jessica Silverman’s gallery statement describes Park’s heroines as refusing to be conquered and as engaging viewers through a “ping pong” of gazes. The source report says Park’s paintings nod to Surrealism while positioning women as empowered and direct, rather than simply as objects within a scene. That approach gives the exhibition’s uncanny imagery a perspective shaped by agency and the act of looking.
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The Exhibition’s Visual Language
“Soft Shell” brings together paintings in which interiors and landscapes are not kept separate. A figure may be surrounded by fruit, animals or objects that seem to shift between familiar and bodily forms; a calm composition can carry a detail that changes how the scene reads. The report identifies this merging of settings and subjects as a recurring feature of Park’s work.
The paintings also contrast hard lines with soft, fuzzy shapes. In “Soft Shell,” the exhibition report says, those opposing forms make the scene seem to expand and contract. Across the body of work, Park explores consciousness, relationships between interior and landscape, beauty and the grotesque, and strength and vulnerability. These themes are presented through individual, sometimes quirky visual narratives rather than a single literal story.
The exhibition is at Jessica Silverman in San Francisco and is scheduled to continue through Dec. 19, 2026. The available report identifies the works and themes but does not provide a complete exhibition checklist or further details about accompanying public programs.
““the containers of life that we inhabit to feel safe, but which do not protect us completely.””
— GaHee Park, as quoted in the exhibition report
Details Beyond the Show Remain Unspecified
The source report does not specify the exhibition’s opening date, the full list of paintings on view, or whether the gallery has scheduled related events. It also does not describe the artist’s plans after the exhibition closes on Dec. 19, 2026. Interpretations of individual images, including the apparent actions of animals or figures, should be read as descriptions of the report’s visual account rather than confirmed narrative explanations from Park.
The San Francisco Exhibition Runs Through December
“Soft Shell” is scheduled to remain on view at Jessica Silverman through Dec. 19, 2026. The source report directs readers to Park’s Instagram for updates, but does not identify any further confirmed dates, events or announcements. Any additional exhibition details or future presentations remain to be announced.
Key Questions
Where is GaHee Park’s “Soft Shell” exhibition?
The exhibition is at Jessica Silverman in San Francisco.
How long is “Soft Shell” on view?
The exhibition is scheduled to continue through Dec. 19, 2026.
What is the main idea behind the exhibition?
Park describes the work through the idea of life’s “containers” that can make people feel safe without fully protecting them. The paintings bring that tension into scenes combining domestic objects, figures and surreal details.
What materials did Park use for the listed paintings?
The works identified in the report are oil on linen. It lists paintings including “Soft Shell,” “Eating Angel” and “Faces with Frog and Tadpoles,” all dated 2026.
Source: thisiscolossal.com
