An ode to a lobby (if that’s what it is)

THIS may be the world’s most meaning-freighted gift shop. OK, gift shop / lobby, but whatever it is, the new space at the Santa Monica Museum of Art seems to have a lot to prove.

What the museum is calling its new “multifunctional exhibition, bookshop, storage and reception area,” even has a name: It’s known as Gracie, the nickname of the president of the Westside kunsthall‘s board, Laura Donnelley.

But what, really, is it? Interested parties can call (408) 794-2870, Ext. 2, for an explanation by its designer, Rome Prize-winning architect Allan Wexler, who also developed this April’s exhibition “Too-Large Wall.” Here’s Wexler:

“I make buildings, furniture, vessels and utensils as backdrops and props for everyday, ordinary human activities. I am an architect in an artist’s body. My studio is a laboratory.

“I sculpt with gravity and heat, I paint with rain.... I practice architecture like a research scientist.... My work blurs the borderlines between sculpture, furniture and architecture.”

By the time you reach the end of the recording, where the objects inside Gracie have been transformed into precious objets d’art -- or at least “a collage of Duchampian Readymades” -- you may need a drink. (And perhaps one of these could be poured by the shop’s “retail curator.”)

Those wanting to toast this audacious step into the future are invited to a reception at the museum on Oct. 13 at 7 p.m.

-- Scott Timberg