Collector Questionnaire

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Meet The Computer Programmer-Turned-Collector Reframing the Role of 'Women's Work'

Komal Shah was fascinated by computer science from an early age despite her childhood surrounded by the arts in her native Ahmedabad, India. After earning her master’s degree at Stanford University and MBA from Berkeley, she went on to high-profile tech roles before shifting priorities in 2008 to co-found the mission-driven Shah Garg Collection, which—along with featuring Shah’s personal love of abstract art—spotlights women-identifying artists and people of color. In addition to sitting on the board of various museums—including SFMOMA, the Hammer, and the Studio Museum in Harlem—the collector leads the quarterly Stanford conversation series Artists on the Future for her alma matter. Ahead of FOG Design+Art, Shah explains the importance of the art fair in her local community and how she plans to expand her efforts outside of San Francisco.

By Sarah Harrelson January 18, 2023
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This Miami Collector Was Once Outbid by Martin Margulies. He Got the Piece Anyway.

Through a friendship with mega collector Ella Fontanals-Cisneros and a background in real estate, Daniel de la Vega made his first foray into collecting, and hasn’t looked back. In the years since, he became a member of The National Young Arts Foundation, board of trustees member at PAMM, and is on the Guggenheim Photo Committee. Now, the president of ONE Sotheby’s International Realty has a collection of over 100 pieces—all of which reflect where he’s been and where he’s going. Here, de la Vega tells CULTURED where his collection started and why its pieces are so personal to him.

By Sophie Lee December 9, 2022
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