When I visited the week after Christmas, the shop was packed. “I knew for the holidays, it needed to be more gifty and the sparseness wasn’t working,” says Thomas. He had the idea that he should use the loft to host a sort of affordable art fair with work by his friends, none of which would cost more than $300. “I think I asked about 150 people, 100 said yes, and about 70 showed up,” he says, including Jason Rosenberg, Julie Burleigh, and Sandeep Mukhergee. “Some of it was worth way more than $300,” he says.