Wilshire Center

Peter Shire’s art has the zaniness of the Venice Beach boardwalk on a steamy Sunday. A good sampling of this fun-loving eclectic work includes everything from Space Age glass-and-metal coffee tables to jewelry and tall, colorful metal towers whose faux gears and pulleys give the look of Space Age toys.

All Shire’s creations play in that nebulous area between fine art, functional art and tacky decoration. Purists are put off and one senses that this may tickle Shire. Even detractors have to give it to Shire on sheer craft, especially evident in small ceramic sculp tures. In “Lemon Squeezy Daddy,” a table-sized tower of geometric shapes in translucent glass grows out of a shiny glass structure that looks suspiciously like a plump breast. Drawings transfer Shire’s far-out sculptures to paper. A series of “Venus” works shows a robust cartoony blonde born of a half-shell at a palmed Southern California beach with ice cream and--what else--Shire’s playful contraptions floating in the air. (Saxon-Lee Gallery, 7525 Beverly Blvd., to Oct. 14.)