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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, domestic objects and uncanny details to explore the limits of safety and protection. The gallery frames the women in the works as active, self-possessed figures, while the exhibition’s wider interpretation comes from Park’s stated themes and the gallery’s description.
GaHee Park’s solo exhibition Soft Shell is on view at Jessica Silverman in San Francisco through Dec. 19, 2026, presenting oil paintings that blend figures, landscapes and still lifes into surreal scenes. The show brings together domestic images that can initially appear calm with details that disrupt that sense of ease, reflecting Park’s interest in the limits of safety and protection.
In the exhibition, Park’s recurring glassy-eyed female figures appear alongside fruit, flowers, animals and objects associated with home and nourishment. The scenes are not straightforward narratives: an eye peers from a goblet, a finger appears beneath a curtain, and a figure lies amid an uncanny array of game and fruit. These details shift familiar arrangements toward the strange without fully explaining what is happening.
Works listed in the report include Soft Shell (2026), an oil painting on linen measuring 16 by 20 inches; Eating Angel (2026), measuring 90 by 72 inches; and Bouquet with a Visitor (2026), measuring 48 by 39 inches. The report also names Dream of a Bird, Fish Bowl with Fruits, Faces with Frog and Tadpoles, and Landscape in Eyes. The available material does not provide a complete checklist or ticketing details.
Colossal’s report describes the paintings as balancing an initially relaxed appearance against small disturbances. A dark cloud hangs over Woman on the Beach with a Bird, while a finger enters the scene in Bouquet with a Visitor. In Eating Angel, a shirt and halo lie on the floor and a cat appears to have eaten from a wing. These are descriptions of depicted imagery, not evidence of a single fixed story behind each work.
Comfort With Unsettling Edges
Soft Shell gives viewers a focused presentation of Park’s approach to painting: familiar forms remain recognizable, but their combinations make them feel unstable. Bowls of fruit, interiors and reclining figures can suggest comfort, while an unexpected body part or looming shape interrupts that reading. The contrast connects the show’s visual effect to its stated concern with how much protection a person or space can offer.
The exhibition also raises questions about how women are presented in surrealist imagery. The gallery says Park’s female protagonists resist being reduced to passive subjects, describing them as figures who meet the viewer’s gaze. That is the gallery’s interpretation of the paintings, rather than an independently documented statement about how every visitor will read them. The works’ direct gazes and unusual scenes nevertheless make the viewer’s role part of the encounter.
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Park’s Surreal Domestic Scenes
The source report places Soft Shell within Park’s continuing use of surreal oil painting, where landscape, figure and still life merge rather than remain separate genres. Her works use domestic objects and food as visual anchors, then introduce details that make the setting feel less secure. The report links this method to the exhibition’s title and to Park’s description of “the containers of life that we inhabit to feel safe, but which do not protect us completely.”
Colossal also connects the paintings to surrealist traditions, citing the nude female form and anatomical suggestions in fruit and objects. Its account says Park turns that history toward women who are more empowered and direct than the figures often found in early 20th-century works made predominantly by men. The exhibition is presented at Jessica Silverman, a San Francisco gallery; the supplied report gives no opening date or details about associated events.
““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
Details Beyond the Exhibition
The source material confirms that Soft Shell is on view through Dec. 19, but does not state its opening date, gallery hours, admission arrangements or whether any public programs are scheduled. It also does not establish how Park intends each painting to be interpreted beyond the themes and description attributed to her and the gallery.
Descriptions of individual images come from the Colossal report, and the supplied material does not include a full exhibition checklist or additional comments from the artist. Interpretations of the paintings’ symbolism should therefore be treated as readings, not as confirmed explanations of every detail.
Viewing the Show in San Francisco
The exhibition is scheduled to remain at Jessica Silverman through Dec. 19, 2026. Readers planning a visit will need to check the gallery for current opening hours, access information and any changes to the schedule, as those details are not included in the source report. Park’s Instagram is also identified in the report as a place to follow updates.
Until the run ends, the paintings offer an opportunity to see the works together rather than as isolated images. The exhibition’s central tension—comfort alongside vulnerability—is visible across its recurring figures, food, interiors and disruptions, though the material does not announce a further exhibition or publication after the San Francisco presentation.
Key Questions
Where is GaHee Park’s Soft Shell exhibition?
It is on view at Jessica Silverman in San Francisco, according to the Colossal report.
How long will the exhibition run?
The report says Soft Shell continues through Dec. 19, 2026. It does not provide the opening date.
What does Soft Shell explore?
Park’s stated idea concerns the places and structures people inhabit to feel safe, and the fact that they cannot offer complete protection. The paintings connect that theme to domestic imagery, figures and surreal disruptions.
Which paintings are named in the report?
The report names Soft Shell, Eating Angel, Bouquet with a Visitor, Dream of a Bird, Fish Bowl with Fruits, Faces with Frog and Tadpoles and Landscape in Eyes, among other works.
Are gallery hours and admission details available?
They are not included in the supplied report. Visitors should contact Jessica Silverman for current scheduling and access information.
Source: thisiscolossal.com
