36 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {punchline} Fuller entitled String Composition #552. Komal explains that the artist began as an abstract painter and then decided to replace paint with simple colored thread pulled in geometric configurations, which are then encased in Lucite. It looks very sleek and modern, even though it was created in 1965. Komal says she enjoys art by women who were “ahead of their time.” Unfortunately, that often means that the artist doesn’t enjoy the recognition that a male artist would have received. A good example is Janet Sobel, who is represented by a small mixedmedia painting, Untitled. Komal points out that it is done in a drip style and dated 1946—three years before Jackson Pollock would use the technique that brought him into worldwide prominence. Why does a person whose career has been defined by numbers, objectives and computers find all of this wild, abstract art so compelling? Komal replies without hesitation, “These artists are unbounded by their creativity and imagination— they can go anywhere.” Today, Komal has a foundational collection, serves on the boards of prestigious institutions—SFMOMA, the Hammer in Los Angeles and the Acquisition Committee of the Studio Museum in Harlem—and created Artists on the Future: The Komal Shah and Guarav Garg Conversation Series at Stanford. Now she’s decided she wants to focus her efforts on making the collection more accessible to people beyond the Bay Area. art appreciation Starting this fall, contemporary art aficionados can view over 70 works from the Shah Garg Collection when the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive displays Making Their Mark. The exhibition runs October 26 through April 20, 2025. bampfa.org PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF: BERKELEY ART MUSEUM AND PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE - DAVID KAMINSKY / BAMPFA - IAN REEVES Working with curators from SFMOMA, Komal created a 432-page catalog called Making Their Mark: Art by Women in the Shah Garg Collection. The book includes images of works by 136 artists plus eight scholarly essays and short texts by a variety of contributing artists and is available on Amazon. She would love to see it become required or recommended reading at universities. Last year, a large-scale exhibition devoted to the Shah Garg Collection opened to rave reviews in New York City. The show comes to the West Coast this fall at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, opening on October 26 and running through April 20, 2025. The exhibition coincides with the launch of the Shah Garg Women Artists Research Fund, which will support new scholarship in the form of public programs, publications and exhibitions featuring female artists at the Berkeley museum. Acknowledging that art collectors are merely temporary custodians for objects that she hopes will live on, Komal declares that what she is doing right now is more fulfilling than anything she’s undertaken before. “I was a workaholic in the tech world and now I spend 60 hours a week around art,” she says. “I can make a much bigger impact in the arts. This is where my heart is.” ABOVE (from left): Cut/Slip for Flowers by Suzanne Jackson; San Francisco (Night) and San Francisco (Day) by Mary Heilmann.
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