Nahema Mehta

Bio:

A Swiss-born, Belgian native, Nahema migrated to New York to attend Columbia University and never left. She followed her love of art to the Sotheby's Institute where she graduated valedictorian with a Masters in Art Business. By day she's an associate portfolio manager at an art fund, but by most-other-waking-moments she is the founder of Art Remba, an online collectors' community offering New Yorkers exclusive monthly access to fine art from recognized artists and galleries.

• Title: Founder, Art Remba
• Age: 26
• Location: SoHo
• Contact: @artremba

Art Remba has been featured on the NY Times and is a great way for people who want to display art, but don't know the ins and outs of the art world to find quality pieces. Have you found that artists and galleries are eager to show their pieces through Art Remba? Was it difficult to establish Art Remba in the art community in New York?

This generation of art collectors want it all: the ease of online access and the pleasure of in-person experience. Most online art ventures focus on the online-access part of the equation, offering wonderful tools to purchase art online, sight-unseen. Since we believe that viewing an artwork in person is as important as having access to it online, the Art Remba model focuses on both the online and offline experience: our Members discover artworks on our site and subscribe to the works in their homes/offices on a monthly basis at accessible rates.

Galleries and artists have been very responsive to this “online + offline” approach as a means to engage new clients. Our emphasis on creating a safe, members-only platform that promises the security, curation, and professional delivery that their artworks deserve, has also proved appealing since galleries and artists are, understandably, very protective of their artworks. 

When did you know you wanted to be involved in the art world? What kind of art do you prefer? Do you have your eye on any local artists or galleries?

Art has always held a special place in my heart. I grew up in Antwerp, which has a wonderful art scene, and was fortunate enough to then migrate to Columbia University for college where I was given all the resources necessary (free museum passes galore!) to navigate the New York art world.

My mom always taught me to look, look, look, and to use art criticism as a bolster to enhance my own perspective instead of a crutch on which to blindly rely. I love emerging market art (art from India, China, Russia…), and I gravitate towards artists that have something important to say and a distinct way of expressing it. Currently, I have my eye on Tianjin-born but New York based photographer, Quentin Shih. His tension-filled photographs contrasting Western affluence with Chinese industrialism are exquisite.

So far Art Remba is only available if you live in the city. We see that Art Remba is planning on expanding. As you expand, do you plan on finding local artists and galleries for each city or do you plan on making any art on Art Remba available on a national level?

We are currently 100% focused on New York, but we aren’t opposed to expanding to other art-centric cities around the world in the future. The benefit of partnering with galleries is that even though the gallery is based in New York, their inventory is sourced from all over the world, which means that our Members get access not only to New York artists, but also to the best talent in India, China, and other booming art sectors. Therefore, despite our programming being local, our offerings are truly global. If we do choose to expand, we'll focus on building micro-communities like the one we're building in New York, where - through our subscription-based model, gallery tours, visits to artist studios, and VIP passes to nearby fairs such as ArtMRKT Hamptons - we give our Members the access needed to participate meaningfully in their city's fine art scene.