GaHee Park is a contemporary artist who challenges the conventions of still-life painting with her surreal and provocative works. Born in Seoul and based in Montréal, Park uses oil on linen to create scenes that combine elements of realism and abstraction, often featuring motifs such as eyes, fish, and flesh. Her paintings explore themes of desire, pleasure, and pain, as well as the relationship between humans and animals, and the effects of consciousness and emotions on perception.
Park says that she likes to think of every subject of her work, including animals and human figures, as part of a still-life, which gives her more freedom to play with forms and meanings. She also draws inspiration from her personal experiences, such as her grandmother’s fish market in Korea, which explains her fascination with seafood and its alien yet familiar qualities.
Park’s paintings are both seductive and unsettling, inviting the viewer to question their own assumptions and feelings about the objects and subjects they encounter. By mixing the familiar and the strange, the beautiful and the grotesque, the sensual and the sour, Park creates a unique and captivating visual language that challenges the boundaries of still-life traditions.
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