Gallery aims to connect global art collectors within Southwest Florida’s growing creative landscape.
On Nov. 11, SH Modern Art, an art advisory firm based out of Southwest Florida, opened a new gallery in Fort Myers. The opening event coincided with the gallery’s first exhibition titled ‘Modern Masters,’ featuring works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Salvador Dalí.
The founder of SH Modern, Sallie Hirshberg, is a graduate of Boston University with a degree in art history and business. Hirshberg started her career with Fidelity Investments as an art consultant at a subsidiary company.
Soon after Fidelity sold the subsidiary, Hirshberg decided to open her own gallery on Newbury Street in Boston, called Galerie d’Orsay.
Sallie Hirshberg. -SH ART GALLERY / COURTESY PHOTO
“I just had learned a tremendous amount from them, and then felt like I was ready,” said Hirshberg. “I opened my own gallery on Newbury Street in Boston, on the first block in 2000 and had that for over two decades, where I partnered with different museums and organizations as well as I was on the board for many of those organizations.”
In addition to owning an art gallery, Hirshberg served on the Committee for Young Executives of the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston. She also loaned pieces to the Bruce Museum in Connecticut for their jazz exhibition.
During her time as CEO of Galerie d’Orsay, she also partnered with the Boston Public Library to place a work from Bruno Zupan, titled ‘The Public Gardens at Twilight Boston Skyline’ in the library’s public collection.
After moving from Boston to Florida on a frequent basis while having young children, Hirshberg decided to sell the gallery and still retain her advisory business, having been in the industry for 30 years.
“After moving to Florida, just going back and forth, I decided to sell it, and then I continued with my art advisory business,” said Hirshberg. “We recently decided to go brick and mortar here in Florida because we work with clients all over the United States, international clients, but we wanted a way to connect deeper with the local community.”
Hirshberg decided to move to Fort Myers because of the more permanent feeling of the residents.
“We thought we were going to move to Naples, because Naples is where we went on vacation, and we thought, ‘Why not live where you vacation?’” Hirshberg said. “Then, a friend of ours (who) lived in Fort Myers and said, ‘You know, you should really take a look at Fort Myers.’ And we just ended up falling in love with a house on the water. My children were young at the time, and we really liked the sense of community here, the area that we found was more of like a steady community. They had young children. We just fell in love with the sunsets and the area and the fact that it does have a strong art community.”
While running the galleries, Hirshberg is always busy putting together shows and preparing art pieces for installation.
“(There’s) never a dull moment,” Hirshberg said. “I think when you’re in the gallery business, people think it’s all glamorous, and it is. There can be a lot of just amazing perks to it, like having some of these major artists on speed dial on your phone. There’s also the other side of it, which is all the work that it takes to put a show together.”
While working as an art advisor, Hirshberg has made many contacts in the art world.
Pablo Picasso, Jacqueline en mariée, de face, Mixed Media. -SH ART GALLERY / COURTESY PHOTO
“Based on my years of relationships with these people, they will send art in from France for us, or other dealers that I work with, or clients. It takes a lot of work to put together a show like this,” said Hirshberg. “Sometimes we’re reaching out to museums or clients that we know are downsizing, or they want to change their collection around. We’re constantly having our pulse on the art world, and what top pieces are available for us.”
When picking pieces for the gallery’s exhibitions, Hirshberg looks at the quality of the work to assess the piece.
“I always try to find the best that I can at any given time,” said Hirshberg. “I look at the imagery, and hand in hand with that is the condition of the work. A lot of these works are from the 60s, from the 70s, so it’s really important to see that the colors are still fresh and bright. We have an original Matisse pochoir, which is from the jazz series, and the colors on this one are as fresh and as bright as the day they were printed, which is really, really hard to find.”
The prices of the works vary, with some pieces by Marc Chagall being sold for $1,400, and other original watercolor paintings listed for over $100,000.
When clients purchase works from the gallery, they honor a first-come, first-served process, with no bidding involved.
“Sometimes we have had clients, like when we had our jazz exhibition, we did have some clients that were trying to pay more to get a piece away from someone else,” Hirshberg said. “I’ve been successful at this; I’ve had relationships that are 30 years long, and that’s not a good way to build a relationship. Even to make a couple thousand, whatever more. For me, it’s about just integrity. And so, we always honor whoever reserves it first. It definitely belongs to them.”
“I’ve been a client of Sallie’s galleries since she started in Newbury Street, in Boston. So probably (for) 20 years,” said Tracey Goldstein, a longtime client of Hirshberg’s. “Sallie has a wonderful way about her, and it’s so easy to understand what the art is; the way she explains it is just like I’ve never heard before. She knows everything about the artist, she knows everything about the paintings, and she’s just incredible.”
The gallery, located at 9280 College Parkway, Suite 7, in Fort Myers, is open Tuesday through Friday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. and by appointment.