GaHee Park — Born 1985, Seoul, South. Korea. Lives and works in Montreal, Canada. Represented by Perrotin, Paris/New York/Tokyo/Hong Kong/Shanghai/Seoul.

 

GaHee Park’s paintings and drawings feel like voyeuristic glimpses into enigmatic fantasies. Her canvases portray entangled couples and solitary nude women with perky breasts and pointy fingernails, often set in domestic spheres with cocktails, fanciful foods, flora, and fauna. These lush interiors are laced with strange details — limbs are too long or disembodied; a stray, watchful eye hovers; a shrimp cocktail appears to be alive. These slick, seductive canvases are matched by Park’s drawings — detailed studies for her paintings that are beguiling works in their own right. 

 

While her early work was more overtly erotic — informed by her strict Catholic upbringing in Korea, and the the way the male gaze objectified women across art history — over time, Park has addressed sexuality with greater nuance. Her latest works are imagined narrative scenes, at times informed by daydreams, that consider the boundaries between public and private. “In a single image, I’m trying to express the multiple ways we inhabit our bodies,” Park has said, “physically, psychologically, sexually, socially, and so on.”

 

Park has earned a BFA in Painting from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia and a MFA in Painting from Hunter College, New York. Her work has been shown in numerous venues including Perrotin, New York and Seoul; Taymour Grahne, London; Motel, Brooklyn; 2nd Floor Gallery, Brooklyn; and Marginal Utility Gallery, Philadelphia.