It’s ‘please do touch’ at this whimsical art space

Pearce is the sort of space that defies both expectation and easy definition. Part gallery, part boutique and part playground, the Venice storefront is a kind of modern-era curiosity shoppe, filled with objects similar only in their strangely appealing eclecticism.

The space’s co-owners, Nancy Pearce and Alma Allen, are Utah natives who met as teens in Salt Lake City and eventually reunited in Los Angeles last year. At that time, Pearce was working in the Universal Studios Archives, helping to organize exhibitions and screenings, among them the studios’ extensive photo show at the Louvre. Allen had just left New York City, where he had established himself as a successful sculptor, earning an impressive roster of collectors, including fashion designers Julio Espada and Todd Oldham.

Painted a pristine eggshell white from floor to ceiling, with Pasadena artist Kelly Mulloy’s richly colored wool tapestries lining the walls, Pearce is a wonderfully visual experience. The store’s unique offerings are pleasingly arranged atop Allen’s custom-made shelves and tables; fragile mid-century Scandinavian glass, minutely detailed graphite carvings (in shapes ranging from lotus flowers to fava beans), vintage ceramics and yellow dandelions suspended in clear Lucite.

The bulk of the store’s merchandise, however, consists of Allen’s sculptures, incredibly tactile and delicately beautiful bits of polished wood and smooth stone, which lend the shop the feel of a Zen garden gone slightly, whimsically, askew.

“It was important to us to find things to put together that might otherwise have been out of context,” Allen says of the store’s aesthetic, “a 600-year-old Chinese artifact next to a plastic doll or a glass ray gun, objects that aren’t purely decorative but that open discussion and have a story to them.”

In an effort to engage customers, Allen’s handcrafted stools (carved of wood and some topped with brightly colored laminate) are scattered throughout the room, and visitors are invited to sit, play, rearrange and explore.

“We wanted this to be an experimental space in that way,” says Pearce, who is also planning workshops and screenings for the store. “We want people to come and sit and interact with the objects and make their own relationships with them.”

“Sculpture is made to be touched,” adds Allen.

“These pieces were made with my hands, and I want people to feel the weight and the shape of them. That’s the point.”

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Pearce

What: A gallery space and shop.

Where: 1225 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice.

When: Wednesday-Sunday, noon to 6:30 p.m.

Info: (310) 399-0040 or www.allenpearce.com.