About Us

The story

The Art Boutiki is the brainchild of comic book publisher Dan Vado. Founded in 1986, SLG Publishing has launched the careers of many well known comic book creators including Jhonen Vasquez, Evan Dorkin, Gene Luen Yang and John "Derf" Backderf. Located in a large downtown San jose warehouse, The Art Boutiki itself was born of the aftermath of two great crashes, the first being when a drunk driver smashed into the front of the building and destroyed the front half of it. Then came The Great Recession of 2008 which made the need for a giant warehouse less of a need. Rather than abandon the space The Vado Family decided to try and do something a little bit different with it.

First, they updated the look of the comic store and re-branded it as the Art Boutiki. Soon Art Boutiki started participating in the South First Friday Art Walk, during which they would sometimes host live music events. At first, live music was limited to the First Friday Art Walk, but that quickly changed as more and more musicians began asking Art Boutiki to host shows for them. Gradually, Vado and his family improved the old space and started booking  bands from San Jose  that had few options to play in the area, filling a huge gap in The Valley's music community. 

Eventually the downtown building was sold by the landlord, and Vado had to decide whether to shutdown his business or find somewhere new. With luck on their side, Vado and his family  found the current Race Street location and never looked back. 

Art Boutiki closed it's venue in December 2025 but remains active in the arts and music communities in San Jose by promoting events in the area with an eye towards one day promoting and producing Art Boutiki branded events.