Ryan Graff Contemporary

Ryan Graff Contemporary Art gallery dedicated to humanist-themed representational art.

Dialogues: David Ball & Ilya ShkipinClosing Reception Saturday, September 5, 6-9 PMJoin us for the closing reception of ...
08/29/2026

Dialogues: David Ball & Ilya Shkipin
Closing Reception Saturday, September 5, 6-9 PM

Join us for the closing reception of David M. Ball and Ilya Shkipin’s Dialogues for an
evening of exhibition-inspired music from Ilya Shkipin and friends.

David M. Ball David Ball and Ilya Shkipin Ilya Shkipin begin with images already in motion: photographs, digital collage, generative tools, and the inherited languages of art history; then return them to the tactile and uncertain world of paint.

Ball builds through collision and accumulation, bringing disparate figures, histories, and visual traditions into crowded, ceremonial compositions. Shkipin moves in another direction, slowing images down until faces soften, spaces shift, and recognizable forms begin to slip toward memory.

Together, Ball and Shkipin approach painting as an act of transformation. One multiplies the image; the other erodes it. Both ask what survives as an image passes through technology, history, memory, and finally the human hand.

David M. BallExcursionOil on Birch Panel
30 x 40 inches
76.2 × 101.6 centimetersAvailableThe work of David M. Ball David...
08/13/2026

David M. Ball
Excursion
Oil on Birch Panel
30 x 40 inches
76.2 × 101.6 centimeters

Available

The work of David M. Ball David Ball begins with a desire to escape what has become familiar. After decades of working with collage, acrylic, and colored pencil, he found that the visual language he had carefully developed had also begun to constrain him. Its fluency became a form of repetition. He needed to find a path where the outcome was once again uncertain.

Dialogues: David Ball & Ilya Shkipin
On show • August 8–September 5

I’m delighted to recently have had the gallery featured in Voyage LA. Give it a read if you’re at all interested to lear...
08/12/2026

I’m delighted to recently have had the gallery featured in Voyage LA. Give it a read if you’re at all interested to learn more about the gallery and how it came to be, there’s a link in bio!

Many thanks to VoyageLA, you’re much appreciated! 🙏🏻

Sincere thank you to everyone who came out to the opening of Dialogues featuring David M. Ball and Ilya Shkipin! We appr...
08/12/2026

Sincere thank you to everyone who came out to the opening of Dialogues featuring David M. Ball and Ilya Shkipin! We appreciate you spending time with this complex and compelling visual conversation between the two artists.

Missed the opening? The show runs through September 5!

📸 Photos by the much appreciated Nick Neumann (Nick Neumann).

Dialogues: David Ball & Ilya Shkipin
On show • August 8–September 5

08/08/2026

Dialogues: David Ball & Ilya Shkipin
Opening Reception August 8, 5-9 PM
On show • August 8–September 5

David M. Ball David Ball and Ilya Shkipin Ilya Shkipin begin with images already in motion—photographs, digital collage, generative tools, and the inherited languages of art history—then return them to the physical, uncertain world of paint.

Ball builds through collision and accumulation, bringing disparate figures, histories, and visual traditions into crowded, ceremonial compositions. Shkipin moves in another direction, slowing images down until faces soften, spaces shift, and recognizable forms begin to slip toward memory.

Together, Ball and Shkipin approach painting as an act of transformation. One multiplies the image; the other erodes it. Both ask what survives as an image passes through technology, history, memory, and finally the human hand.

This exhibition invites repeats viewings, as the works that make up the show will be in a state of perpetual evolution, altering the conversation between images.

Some details from the layered and complex paintings of Ilya Shkipin Ilya Shkipin. Shkipin’s work is very much reflective...
08/08/2026

Some details from the layered and complex paintings of Ilya Shkipin Ilya Shkipin. Shkipin’s work is very much reflective of the emotional turbulence of our times and demands deeper attention.

We hope you’ll come and engage with this nuanced work at tonight’s opening reception!

Dialogues: David Ball & Ilya Shkipin
Opening Reception August 8, 5-9 PM
On show • August 8–September 5

Some details from the delightfully complex multi-figure works of David M. Ball David Ball. Ball’s paintings are universe...
08/07/2026

Some details from the delightfully complex multi-figure works of David M. Ball David Ball. Ball’s paintings are universes unto themselves, rewarding prolonged attention.

We hope you’ll come and get lost in these gorgeous pieces during Saturday’s open reception!

Dialogues: David Ball & Ilya Shkipin
Opening Reception August 8, 5-9 PM
On show • August 8–September 5

One last image from Aina Clotas’s The Backwards Race. Final viewing tonight from 6-10Aina Clotas Aina ClotasSelf Portrai...
08/06/2026

One last image from Aina Clotas’s The Backwards Race. Final viewing tonight from 6-10

Aina Clotas Aina Clotas
Self Portrait 1
Oil on panel
12 x 10 inches
30.5 × 25.4 centimeters

⭕️ Sold

We are delighted to feature two new pieces from Noah Trapolino Noah Trapolino for August’s Fresh Paint. Both works are c...
08/06/2026

We are delighted to feature two new pieces from Noah Trapolino Noah Trapolino for August’s Fresh Paint. Both works are currently on show in the gallery’s back space!

Complexity Again
Oil on panel
16 x 12 inches
40.6 x 30.5 centimeters

A study for one of the images in an ongoing series based on the 14 cows of Genesis 41:20. In “Complexity Again,” Trapolino’s model suggested this pose as a reference to the other cows’ “self cannibalism” — which can be taken both as a medical condition on the part of the cow that reflects malnutrition, and as a symbolic act of “refusal” of sharing the milk that is assumed to be made for humans or even other cows (an intentional instability)—where the subject pinches her ni**le closed.

Fold
Oil on panel
6 x 12 inches
30.5 x 15.2 centimeters



Detail from “Complexity Again”

Detail from “Complexity Again”

Complexity Again
Oil on panel
16 x 12 inches
40.6 x 30.5 centimeters

Detail from “Complexity Again”

Fold
Oil on panel
6 x 12 inches
30.5 x 15.2 centimeters

Detail from “Fold”

Detail from “Fold”

Detail from “Fold”

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804 Sutter Street
San Francisco, CA
94109

Opening Hours

Friday 12pm - 6pm
Saturday 12pm - 5pm
Sunday 12pm - 5pm

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