BIOGRAPHY
Alma Allen was born in 1970 in Heber City, Utah. He began carving at an early age after discovering Indian petroglyph drawings, whose shapes and visual forms of communication fascinated him.
Alma lived in Truth or Consequences, NM, the Virgin Islands, Chicago, and New Orleans before settling in New York City in 1996. Maintaining his punk rock snow/skateboarder ethos from his youth, Alma first exhibited his sculptures in NYC set up on an antique ironing board in Soho and his work was soon collected by art and design luminaries.
In 2000, Alma moved to California as he prefers to collect his own raw materials - primarily wood and stone. When deserts, beaches, and mountains were unavailable, Alma carved abandoned furniture pieces in Chicago and broken chunks of sidewalk in New York City. In California, Alma reunited with his childhood sweetheart and current business partner Nancy Pearce. Together they opened “Pearce,” a store showcasing Alma’s work on Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice.
Alma's smaller scale sculptures, (most pieces are under twelve inches), allow him to create a wide variety of different forms - rather like sketches in the material itself. Alma also lends his sculptural sensibilities to functional work - rendering salvaged wood into one-of-a-kind tables, turned stools, and bowls.
In 2005, Alma and Nancy moved to the desert of Joshua Tree, CA so that they would have room to work on a larger scale as well as set up a bronze foundry. Alma designed and built an environmentally friendly house & studio while they lived in a Streamline trailer on the land along with their trusty dog Fritz.
PEARCE in Venice, 2002...
