The New Art Dealers of Southwest Florida
In Naples and Fort Myers, two veteran art advisers open galleries, bringing museum-caliber works and decades of market expertise closer to local collectors.
by Lauren Amalia Redding Arts + Culture Aug. 26, 2026 7:02 p.m.
Delivery trucks rumble up to seaside penthouses and contemporary riverfront residences weighted down with carefully wrapped and crated treasures—surrealist scenes by Salvador Dalí, storied portraits from Alex Katz and other masterworks that rival panoramic Gulf views.
What’s sometimes missing in that model is face-to-face connection, a personal relationship with the dealer, the ability to browse and interrogate the provenance of a potential purchase without an appointment and a plane ticket. But in the last year, two local art dealers—Sallie Hirshberg and Robert Casterline—have supplemented their private practices with public-facing, brick-and-mortar galleries that provide new and returning clients with a physical space to match their discerning tastes.
At SH Modern Art, Sallie Hirshberg welcomes walk-ins and longtime clients to peruse works by modern masters Matisse, Chagall, Warhol, and Dalí. Her years at Fidelity Investments and Galerie d’Orsay shape her scholarly approach.
SH Modern Art fills the gap for Fort Myers collectors. Sallie has been in the art advisory world for more than 30 years, first at a Fidelity Investments subsidiary, then from her Boston hot spot, Galerie d’Orsay, and, since 2014, from a private showroom in Fort Myers. “We’ve seen a real uptick in local clients requesting gallery appointments,” Sallie says. “Many are rebuilding on the river, creating beautiful modern homes and looking to make meaningful investments in art. At the same time, we’re welcoming new clients relocating to Naples and settling into the area’s growing number of new developments.” SH Modern Art, launched in Fort Myers last autumn, allows her to connect and form relationships with this influx of new collectors and locals with a renewed interest more organically.
The gallery—tucked off of College Parkway—centers on works on paper and canvas by masters of the modernist and pop art movements, including Matisse, Chagall, Warhol and Dalí, alongside select sculptural, contemporary and local pieces. Here, Sallie leads with a scholarly approach, guiding walk-ins through the history and cultural significance of the displayed works while mentally scrolling through her database of off-site pieces that may be of interest. “We recently had a local client visit the showroom who had always dreamed of owning a Chagall,” Sallie says. “They left with a beautiful, hand-signed, limited-edition work. Some clients arrive specifically seeking masterworks, while others fall in love with a piece first and then discover the artist behind it.” Early in her career, she cultivated a longstanding relationship with Christine Argillet, whose father, Pierre, was a pivotal publisher, collector and friend of Salvador Dalí.
A big draw for brick-and-mortar art galleries is the relationships built. Sallie verifies the source of every artwork she sells, fostering long-term trust. “It’s really important that all the art is as it should be,” she says.
“All our Dalí etchings come with certificates of authenticity,” Sallie says. With an art history education and ties to museums and curators, she leans heavily on academic connections and credentials to source and verify her inventory; the notoriously fraught process often borders on detective work. She recalls sourcing a Rembrandt etching for a client years ago that, after some due diligence, was determined to have been made by a student of the famed master, not the artist. This transparency is critical to maintaining long-term relationships and trust. “It’s essential that each work can be verified in the artist’s catalogue raisonné, when available,” Sallie says. “When provenance is accessible, we share it, verify the work’s condition, and make sure everything is exactly as it should be,” she says.
At SH Modern and Casterline, actions speak louder than words. Clients who check in like family, scrupulous research and analysis, and a personal approach that’s counterintuitive to what most people would expect from upper-echelon galleries underpin an ethos and reputation built on unshakeable, proven trust. But they also can’t deny the heart of what draws audiences to an image—and what so captivated Robert as a young tour guide. As he succinctly puts it: “We want collectors to actually like the artwork.”
