My environment
  Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate with Telerik coded UI extension setup
  Telerik UI for WPF 2014 Q1

My question is -- for test automation purpose, can I (how can I) get the data inside a Telerik grid as a whole nested object model?

See the attached picture, it shows how coded UI identify a telerik gridview instance. I put the coded UI identifier on a gridview control. It identify the cell and its property. But that's not what I want. I want to be able to get the data in a grid as in a whole object model way, so I can get the specific row object then cell object.

Hello Paul,

There is no problem to get a given element. Be sure you have followed the step described in CodedUI support help topic. There you can find a list with supported controls. Let me know if you have additional questions.

Regards,
Yordanka
Telerik