A Montrose magazine and design shop will soon have a new home. Tomo (styled TOMO) will reopen this fall in Post Houston's Art Club, the downtown food hall and event space's permanent black box art exhibition space and nightlight experience.
Set to open in the fourth quarter of 2024, Tomo will be the site's gift shop and storefront component.
Founder Vico Puentes originally opened Tomo in 2015. The store began as a unique magazine shop housed within a refurbished school bus, showcasing independent publications from around the globe. It moved to a permanent location in Montrose at 703 W. Alabama St., and quickly became a vibrant neighborhood hub for printed art and design goods. Tomo paused operations in 2017 and focused on collaborations and partnerships. An opportunity for a revival became available when Puentes met developer Kirby Liu through the Houston arts scene and stayed connected with him through various events and exhibits hosted at Post.
The reimagined Tomo will blend both of those iterations. Its new location will offer Art Club merchandise collaborations and exclusive, limited-edition design goods, focusing on visual and experiential artists. Readers will be glad to hear that the store's magazine selection returns in a new form as well, highlighting small publishing houses and titles from Spain, Mexico, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the USA, along with local Houston and regional publications.
“Through our partnership with Art Club, Tomo returns with a renewed spirit, ready to rekindle its mission of finding inspiration and connecting people through print,” Puentes said in a statement. “The revival of Tomo provides a space that will champion education and curiosity and celebrate diversity and representation.”
Art Club’s international roster of artists should be announced in October. Blending elements and programming from both nightclubs and art galleries, the 40,000-square-foot space will introduce a fresh approach to time-based art installations with a rotating roster of light and digital media artists and designers from around the world. Having Tomo as its retailer gives another avenue for artist creation and for guests to take home part of their Art Club experience. It also means downtown shoppers have a new space to look for unique items.
“Downtown Houston is in need of retail with creative offerings unavailable anywhere else in the city, "said Kirby Liu, founder of Art Club and director at POST. “Tomo's unique gifts and books will establish downtown as one of Houston’s cultural epicenters.”
Those wishing to see what might be in store can catch the US debut of pop-up exhibition Solar Dust by Italian Art Studio Quiet Ensemble. Solar Dust is the first exhibition organized by Art Club and runs through September 30.
Courtesy of Tomo
TOMO, a former Montrose shop beloved for its art vibe and books, is set to reopen at Post Houston this fall
