Vertu Fine Art

Vertu Fine Art occupies a gallery space on Clint Moore Road in north Boca Raton, an area better known for office parks and light industrial buildings than art dealing, which makes the gallery feel a bit like a discovery rather than a stop on an obvious gallery-hopping route. It was founded in 2011 by Gary Santoro, a native New Yorker who had already spent time as a founding partner of Verve gallery in Fort Lauderdale before starting his own venture. Santoro moved to South Florida in 1997 and, over the years that followed, noticed a gap in the local market: not enough galleries in the region were dealing seriously in the kind of New York-style contemporary art, particularly Pop Art, Optical Art, and Abstract Expressionism, that he had grown up around. Vertu was his answer to that gap.

The gallery’s inventory reads like a survey course in postwar and contemporary art history. Visitors can find work connected to Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Damien Hirst, Alex Katz, Julian Opie, Chuck Close, David Hockney, Robert Rauschenberg, Jean-Michel Basquiat, KAWS, Claes Oldenburg, Alexander Calder, and Joan Miro, among others, with a particular focus on prints, editions, and multiples rather than exclusively unique paintings. That focus on editions is a deliberate choice. It allows the gallery to offer work by artists whose unique paintings would be well outside most collectors’ budgets, while still dealing in authenticated, gallery-quality pieces rather than posters or unauthorized reproductions. More recently, the gallery has broadened into emerging artists and fine art photography, expanding beyond its original blue-chip focus.

What separates Vertu from a purely transactional art dealer is Santoro’s approach to the buying process itself. He holds a master’s degree in education and taught in New York before moving into the gallery business, and that background shows in how the gallery frames its role. Rather than simply moving inventory, the stated mission is to help each client find work that fits their space, their budget, and their personality, factoring in both decor and the piece’s potential as a long-term investment. For a first-time buyer intimidated by the art world’s reputation for gatekeeping, that educational, client-first approach can make a real difference in whether a visit turns into a purchase or just a browse.

Vertu Fine Art keeps regular gallery hours, open Monday through Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., closed on Sundays. The extended evening hours later in the week accommodate collectors who prefer to browse after work or combine a visit with dinner in the area. Only a portion of the gallery’s full inventory is posted online at any given time, so a phone call or an in-person visit tends to reveal considerably more than the website alone.

For Boca Raton residents interested in postwar and contemporary art, particularly editions and prints by internationally recognized names, Vertu Fine Art offers a locally owned alternative to the auction house route, backed by an owner with more than a decade running this specific gallery and deep roots in South Florida’s art scene going back to the late 1990s.