Cultured Collections

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.