Ryan Graff Contemporary

Directions Website Contact the museum

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

Some details from three of the 19 gorgeously rich works featured in João Ruas’s João Ruas upcoming exhibition “OSSO,” o...
10/07/2026

Some details from three of the 19 gorgeously rich works featured in João Ruas’s João Ruas upcoming exhibition “OSSO,” opening on Saturday!

João Ruas: OSSO
On show • October 10–November 7
Opening reception with the artist October 10, 5-9 PM

Join us Thursday, October 1, for the SF First Thursdays SF First Thursdays Art Walk edition of Walk Through Walls or Do...
10/01/2026

Join us Thursday, October 1, for the SF First Thursdays SF First Thursdays Art Walk edition of Walk Through Walls or Don’t, a new exhibition by Phil Hale.

6-10 PM
Ryan Graff Contemporary
804 Sutter Street

The title of this exhibition arrives as an impossible instruction, followed almost immediately by its own undoing. Walk through walls. Or don’t. Between those two propositions lies an oppositional territory of will and refusal: the desire to overcome what stands before us, and the equally human impulse to remain exactly where we are.

Hale’s work has long resisted fixed narratives. His images operate through collision and association, allowing meaning to emerge without ever fully settling into place. Figures, gestures, fragments, and events are charged with consequence, while withholding the comfort of explanation. Hale’s images set events in motion and resist resolution. The viewer is left inside that instability, an invitation to participate rather than simply observe.

Perhaps the wall is the point. Perhaps passing through it is. Hale leaves us somewhere less stable: standing before the thing, deciding. There is no instruction for what comes next. The choice is ours.

With immense gratitude to Laura Hines Laura Hines at Roborant Review Roborant Review for her deeply insightful and sensi...
09/28/2026

With immense gratitude to Laura Hines Laura Hines at Roborant Review Roborant Review for her deeply insightful and sensitive review of Phil Hale’s ‘Walk Through Walls or Don’t.”

Sincere thanks to Laura and the Roborant team!

The full review can be read at the link in bio.

With so much gratitude for everyone who came out to the opening of Phil Hale’s Phil Hale Walk Through Walls or Don’t. Th...
09/15/2026

With so much gratitude for everyone who came out to the opening of Phil Hale’s Phil Hale Walk Through Walls or Don’t. The energy was real, and was great to see so many old friends and new faces!

Phil Hale: Walk Through Walls or Don’t
On show • September 12–October 3



Bonus, an awesome collision of two different editions of Qvarantine Quarantine. The Qvarantine experience comes with the highest possible recommendation!

Ryan Graff Contemporary invites you to renowned artist Phil Hale’s Phil Hale solo exhibition Walk Through Walls or Don’t...
09/10/2026

Ryan Graff Contemporary invites you to renowned artist Phil Hale’s Phil Hale solo exhibition Walk Through Walls or Don’t.

The title of this exhibition arrives as an impossible instruction, followed almost immediately by its own undoing. Walk through walls. Or don’t. Between those two propositions lies an oppositional territory of will and refusal: the desire to overcome what stands before us, and the equally human impulse to remain exactly where we are.

Hale’s work has long resisted fixed narratives. His images operate through collision and association, allowing meaning to emerge without ever fully settling into place. Figures, gestures, fragments, and events are charged with consequence, while withholding the comfort of explanation. Hale’s images set events in motion and resist resolution. The viewer is left inside that instability, an invitation to participate rather than simply observe.

Perhaps the wall is the point. Perhaps passing through it is. Hale leaves us somewhere less stable: standing before the thing, deciding. There is no instruction for what comes next. The choice is ours.

Special thanks to for supporting our traveling artists and the San Francisco arts community. 

Thank you to everyone who came out for our closing reception of David M. Ball David Ball and Ilya Shkipin’s Ilya Shkipin...
09/08/2026

Thank you to everyone who came out for our closing reception of David M. Ball David Ball and Ilya Shkipin’s Ilya Shkipin Dialogues exhibition. It’s a delight to have the interaction of music and art together, thank you to Ilya, Cye, John, Sam, Dave, and Paul for a great evening!

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

Address

804 Sutter Street
San Francisco, CA
94109

Opening Hours

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

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Ryan Graff Contemporary posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Museum

Send a message to Ryan Graff Contemporary:

Shortcuts

Share

Category