{"id":433119,"date":"2026-08-14T21:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T21:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/433119\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T21:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T21:06:10","slug":"review-gahee-park-looks-behind-curtain-in-new-san-francisco-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/433119\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: GaHee Park looks behind curtain in new San Francisco show\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Korean-born GaHee Park\u2019s paintings seem almost to be a direct response to some of the most revered paintings in the Western world. Her first U.S. museum show, \u201cBehind the Curtain,<\/a>\u201d at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, reveals clear influences of Spaniards Salvador Dal\u00ed and Pablo Picasso. What separates Park\u2019s works from theirs is a subversion of the male gaze.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Such allusions should come as no surprise, as the intended purpose of \u201cBehind the Curtain\u201d is for Park to lay her influences bare. The show occupies one of YBCA\u2019s upstairs gallery spaces. Down the hall is the Center\u2019s screening room, which will be hosting a parallel film series, \u201cThrough an Open Window<\/a>,\u201d co-curated by Park and filmmaker Michael Vass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Films screened will include Hitchcock\u2019s \u201cRear Window,\u201d Ernst Lubitsch\u2019s \u201cTrouble in Paradise,\u201d and Michael Powell\u2019s \u201cThe Red Shoes.\u201d\u00a0 Looking over the roster of eleven features and three shorts, one becomes aware of these films\u2019 contradictory depictions of femininity. How does one even write about Hitchcock these days without discussing the often-horrendous ways women were treated on (and off-) camera?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what makes a piece like Park\u2019s \u201cFish and Ants\u201d (2024) seem to wear its commentary openly. <\/p>\n

\"AGaHee Park, Fish and Ants on a Table, 2024, Photo by Paul Litherland<\/p>\n

As its title suggests, the oil-on-linen piece features a dead fish on a dining room table as ants crawl toward it and a nearby cocktail glass. Behind the table is a nude femme body, visible only from the hips to above the navel, standing in front of an open window on a sunny day. . Park\u2019s piece presents objectification while suggesting a natural cycle\u2013both the fish and the body inevitably being \u201cconsumed\u201d in one way or another. Yet, objectification doesn\u2019t always mean the removal of power. As burlesque star Dita von Teese is fond of saying<\/a>, \u201cWe all have a right to be objectified if that\u2019s what we want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the theme carries over into \u201cTable at Dusk,\u201d from the same 2024 series, in which the fish, cocktail glass, and ants make another dinner-ruining appearance. The femme subject is revealed more in this one, right breast casually exposed as she seems to be carrying the entire table like a cocktail tray. The awkward placement of her eyes makes for the most blatant Picasso influence.<\/p>\n

Surrealism becomes more pronounced with pieces like 2022\u2019s \u201cDream with Still Life\u201d and 2021\u2019s \u201cWoman with Dragonfly.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"AGaHee Park, Dream with Still Life, 2022, Photo by Eric Ruby<\/p>\n

\"PaintingGaHee Park, Woman with Dragonfly, 2021, Photo by Tanguy Beurdeley<\/p>\n

The former depicts a woman seemingly falling asleep at a restaurant with a gray cat curiously observing her, the remains of a devoured fish on the plate in front of her. Though her face is expressionless, there\u2019s an air of contentment surrounding her. She\u2019s less \u201clonely cat lady\u201d so much as \u201csatisfied cat lady.\u201d The subject of the latter painting also seems to be mid-dream, with her eyes closed, save for the one (she seems to have at least three) reflected in the beverage glass on her table. The titular dragonfly is carrying a sliced-open lime, as if retrieving it for the subject\u2019s drink. Excellent service at this place.<\/p>\n

By Park\u2019s own admission, being a woman \u201ccaught between sea and land, dawn and twilight, eroticism and abstraction, concealment and exposure\u201d is a motivating force in much of her work. Women are constantly told they must be only one thing, but whatever the \u201cone thing\u201d is, it\u2019s rife with contradictions. It\u2019s as if Park has bucked the odds to find her own happy medium between those contradictions.<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s de facto \u201cthesis statement\u201d may show best in the largest painting of the collection: 2024\u2019s \u201cThoughts on Dusk.\u201d Like a contemporary remix of Dal\u00ed\u2019s \u201cThe Persistence of Memory,\u201d \u201cThoughts on Dusk\u201d collects nearly all the motifs of the other pictures into one: the ants; the devoured animal (this time a seagull); the eye in the cocktail glass; and even another cat, hypnotized by its own reflection. All flank the subject, resting her asymmetrical head on the table. There\u2019s a deathly subtext with the bird\u2019s remains and crawling ants, with the cat\u2019s reflecting and subject\u2019s placid expression suggesting a disappointment akin to Peggy Lee singing \u201cIs that all there is?\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not for us mere mortals to say, but GaHee Park clearly enjoys asking the question.<\/p>\n

\u201cGaHee Park: Behind the Curtain<\/a>\u201d runs through Jan. 3, 2027 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Korean-born GaHee Park\u2019s paintings seem almost to be a direct response to some of the most revered paintings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[2311,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-433119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-museums","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}