Friends and associates of St. Helena Main Street gallery owner Ira Wolk are hoping and praying for him to recover from a serious bicycle accident that left him in a coma.

The details of the accident are unclear, but Wolk, 63, apparently lost control of his bicycle on July 8 while he was riding on Hillcrest Drive, near Silverado Resort and not far from his home. He suffered major head injuries and broken bones.

Last week, Wolk remained in a coma at San Francisco General Hospital. He’s not brain-dead and he’s not on life support, officials said. But Sharon Dellamonica, who works at I. Wolk Gallery and has been keeping a close eye on Wolk’s condition, said the situation is “very serious.”

“We’re at a point where we need a miracle,” she said, but added that she’s still hopeful.

Wolk’s wife, Beth, is by his side. Wolk also has three grown step-children: two with Beth and one with his former wife Lynne Law.

“I’m really pulling for him to get through this,” said Angwin photographer Terence Ford, a friend of Wolk’s. “I think we would be a much poorer community without him, and anybody who knows him would agree.”

Fellow gallery owner Oliver Caldwell said that with so much uncertainty surrounding Wolk’s future, “we’re all on pins and needles. We just have to sit and wait. The feeling of helplessness is just awful.”

Friends and artists say Wolk’s combination of passion for art and compassion for human beings is unusual in the dog-eat-dog art world.

“Ira once told me, ‘When I look at art, I have to see the artist in the work,’” said Anne Hunter Hamilton of Calistoga. “He goes beyond just good technical ability, and he looks for the soul in a piece of art.”

Hamilton was one of the local artists who has been featured by Wolk. Their friendship started in the early 1990s. “I started painting at the age of 40,” she said. “I never expected to have an art career like Ira’s provided for me.”

Rutherford artist Helen Berggruen first had her work displayed at I. Wolk in the mid-’90s. When she shifted from watercolors to oil painting, a significant step for an artist, Wolk supported her by devoting a show to her oils.

Years later, when Berggruen suffered a serious illness and a few dealers were questioning their commitment to her work, Wolk planned a show for her, which “made a big difference in motivating me to get well.”

When Wolk opened his original gallery in 1990, in the space occupied today by the Christopher Hill Art Gallery, many were skeptical of whether there was a market in St. Helena for high-end art galleries. The I. Wolk Gallery proved there is.

Caldwell, a former business associate of Wolk’s and current owner of the Caldwell-Synder Gallery, said Wolk “pioneered the trail” that led to other high-end galleries on Main Street.

Artistically, Caldwell said Wolk has such a good eye for form, composition and ambiance that “he probably should have been an architect.”

Steve Gordon, who operates his own gallery in Yountville, was one of the first artists featured by Wolk. He said there had been other art galleries in St. Helena, but Wolk “kind of took it to another level.”

“He really wanted to make it a special place in St. Helena, with a kind of urban contemporary style,” said Gordon.

Lorna McLearie, a Napa designer who used to run a St. Helena showroom, would sometimes steer business Wolk’s way when he opened his gallery. She said his clients “always felt like they were getting more than a painting; they were getting an education.”

Wolk’s business model was new to St. Helena, but “he really embraced the community and wanted to become an integral part of it,” said McLearie. “He respected other businesses and in return, other businesses were respectful to him.”

Dellamonica said that since Wolk’s accident the gallery has deluged with “an outpouring of love and respect. I don’t think Ira ever knew that this many people deeply cared for him,” she said. “I don’t know if that message is reaching him now, but I hope it is.”

Apart from the I. Wolk Gallery, Wolk operates a gallery at Cliff Lede Vineyards in Yountville, and sculpture galleries at Auberge and MacArthur Place in Sonoma.