Entry No. 24 — the Los Angeles file — filed under: art-immersive
Mosaic Tile House
Over three decades, artists Cheri Pann and Gonzalo Duran encrusted their own Venice home, inside and out, with handmade glazed tiles and shards of broken ceramic. Walls, fences, cabinets, a gazebo and even the bathroom fixtures disappear under dense fields of color and embedded objects. Pann threw and glazed the tiles; Duran cracked and arranged them into magic-realist figures. Pann died in 2025, but the house she and Duran built remains a living artwork, open to visitors who walk straight through it tile by tile.
The story
From the curb on Palms Boulevard, 1116 looks like a regular Venice residential lot, right up until the stucco gives way to a blinding, high-gloss shell of ceramic. What started in the 1990s as a routine weekend project to tile a bathroom exploded into a three-decade obsession. Artists Cheri Pann and Gonzalo Duran spent thirty years transforming their living quarters into a continuous, floor-to-ceiling mosaic sculpture.
Their method was strict division of labor: Pann threw and hand-glazed rich clay tiles in her studio, while Duran grabbed a hammer, smashed them into shards, and grouted them into sprawling magic-realist figures, faces, and patterns. Every surface got consumed—walls, fences, kitchen cabinets, outdoor gazebos, and even the bathroom fixtures disappear under dense fields of color. Pann passed away in 2025, but the house stands as a living, inhabited artifact of their joint life work.
What it's like
You are stepping directly into someone's personal living quarters, so treat it accordingly. The tour drops you into an overwhelming maze of color where you'll want to move slowly—look down at your feet, peek around doorframes, and scout for tiny embedded trinkets, oddball faces, and ceramic shards grouted into unexpected corners. Space is tight, visits are restricted to short Saturday afternoon windows, and reservations are practically mandatory, so book ahead and confirm current availability before showing up at the gate.
The move: Take the Saturday-afternoon tour together and slowly hunt for hidden faces and oddball objects pressed into the mosaic, then debrief over tacos on Abbot Kinney.
📍 Before you go Open for tours Saturdays roughly 1-4pm; reservations recommended. Around $20 adults, $15 seniors. It is a private home, so check current availability before going.
- 📍 Venice
- 💸 $$
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 1116 Palms Blvd, Venice, CA 90291
Hours: Added 2026-06-23 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- Moonlight Glass (John Mooney) — Follow up your walk through hand-glazed mosaic tiles with a private hands-on glassblowing session right nearby in Venice.
- The Museum of Jurassic Technology — Pair one couple's hyper-colorful residential art obsession with Culver City's dim, velvet-lined hall of mysterious fabrications.
- Center for Land Use Interpretation — Contrast the extreme visual sensory overload of the mosaic home with CLUI's deadpan, minimal exhibits on how humans reshape territory.
Good to know
When is the house open for tours?
Tours typically run on Saturdays between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Because it is a private residential venue, opening times are strict and hours should be re-confirmed prior to visiting.
How much are tickets and do I need a reservation?
Admission is roughly $20 for adults and $15 for seniors. Reservations are highly recommended due to limited capacity.
Where exactly is it located?
You'll find it tucked into a residential neighborhood in Venice at 1116 Palms Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90291.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: printmag.com · spacesarchives.org · news.artnet.com · m.yelp.com · Atlas Obscura
last checked: 2026-06-23