Meet Odeta Xheka

We recently connected with Odeta Xheka and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Odeta, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

Committed to focus on art and artists whose visual tools engage the mind, the eye, and the soul alike in order to bring people together, help them remember what, deep down, they know is true, put language to something for which there is no language available and ultimately celebrate what makes us all human, helming OXH Gallery comes with a particular set of challenges. While it should come as no surprise that a significant part of my journey as a woman gallery founder/director has been navigating and challenging gender stereotypes given that despite the growing number of women art dealers and collectors and all they do in championing artists, supporting art institutions and stewarding important conversations around art the industry continues to be male dominated, it is equally important to point out that while recognizant of the dominant trends in looking at art through technical, political, historical, and shock-value reading perspectives, OXH Gallery is, at its core, a passionate attempt to bring together intergenerational artists whose practices, complimentary in their conceptual rigor and artistic sensibilities, provide opportunities for communion around art not as a sentimental gesture but as an opportunity to ensure that engagement with beauty and meaning can endure far beyond the gallery walls.
Easier said than done. Given the current low levels of art coverage in written and online media, despite the growing need to illuminate the broader impact of art on communities, projects like OXH Gallery face challenges. Consequently, exciting exhibitions, panel discussions that bring together artists, art therapists, and entrepreneurs, artist talks, and one-off events intended to create an exciting space for young professionals to come and enjoy art have difficulty in reaching their target audience. As a result, those who could benefit most from such events may miss out on valuable insights and experiences.
But, out of necessity comes invention. A newfound trait, particularly challenging for an introvert like myself, is the courage to reach out and genuinely engage with individuals, organizations and institutional representatives receptive to my project. To my great joy, my requests have met with positive responses, demonstrating that asking can indeed yield results. In a relatively short time, I’ve successfully raised awareness and integrated OXH Gallery curatorial efforts organically in the Tampa Bay art ecosystem.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Juggling family and life responsibilities while pursuing an art career and meaningful connections with other creatives, my story echoes the trials many women (artists) go through in a world that often prefers things to be straightforward and has, unfortunately, little use for genuine expressions that can not be immediately pigeonholed into a sense of mundane conformity. As a woman in the artworld, often relegated to the role of the narrated rather than the narrator, I have chosen to reclaim my voice as an artist through my art practice and, hopefully, elevate many other artists’ voices as well by structuring OXH Gallery exhibitions as deliberate narratives, at times to be viewed as acts of defiance at others as proclamations of existence, in a world that too often overlooks the profound stories that women have to tell.
An interdisciplinary artist working across collage, assemblage, painting on canvas and new media, my work ranging from the abstract to the figurative has been juried into national and international competitions as well as featured in various art magazines and literary journals both in print and online. Most recently, I exhibited at Gasparilla Arts Festival as one of the five Local Spotlighted Artists backed by the Gobioff Foundation which works to support human rights organizations and the Tampa, FL art community.Next, I am scheduled to show my work at John F. Germany Public Library Kopler Gallery in a three-month stint (Nov’24 – Jan’25) through which I aim to explore and subvert the conventions of painterly image and literature via mixed-media text-based artworks that draw attention to the way we perceive, communicate, and filter information.
In the same vein, my work as a gallery founder/director is focused on drawing attention to the need to take ourselves away from the emotional and literal cacophony of contemporary life and give an hour, or two, or a whole entire day to reconnect with our inner selves through art sharing, in the process, the joy of fellow feeling. Instead of looking at this as retreating from life, a sort of daydreaming, it must be remembered that thousands of studies which have used a really wide range of research methodology from really large surveys to experimental case studies show that the arts can have a role both in preventing mental health problems like depression as well as managing and treating existing symptoms of mental illness.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

While it might sound like a cliché, the pivotal factor in propelling OXH Gallery into the spotlight was my willingness to embrace and navigate the contradictions within me—juggling fear and creativity, enthusiasm and worry, certainty and doubts. This internal struggle was the backdrop as I worked on bringing my vision of a cross-generational approach to exhibiting art, coupled with cross-sector and community partnerships, to fruition. This journey required a level of self-awareness and self-acceptance that, though easier said than done, allowed me to confront the nagging doubts that often surfaced at 3 am.

A newfound trait, particularly challenging for an introvert like myself, was the courage to reach out and genuinely engage with individuals, organizations and institutional representatives receptive to my project. Surprisingly, my requests were met with positive responses, demonstrating that asking can indeed yield results. In a relatively short time, I’ve successfully raised awareness and integrated OXH Gallery into the Tampa art community in an organic manner.

This leads to the third notable trait, which is my ability to think outside the box. Given the current low levels of art coverage in written and online media, despite the growing need to illuminate the broader impact of art on communities, projects like OXH Gallery face challenges. Consequently, exciting exhibitions with nationally renowned artists or panel discussions that bring together artists, local art therapists, and authors face challenges reaching their target audience. This difficulty impedes the spread of knowledge regarding how art can stimulate the brain and promote therapeutic effects. As a result, those who could benefit most from such events may miss out on valuable insights and experiences.

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?

Although the number of women art dealers and collectors continues to rise, the art industry is still male dominated. As a woman in leadership, navigating and challenging gender stereotypes has been a significant part of my journey, focusing on staying true to my authentic and artistic style while breaking through these stereotypes. By fostering a supportive environment and encouraging authenticity, I hope to contribute to a shift in the perception of leadership, making it more inclusive and diverse.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.oxhgallery.com
• Instagram: he_a_rt_project
• Linkedin: Odeta Xheka
• Twitter: he_a_rt_project
• Youtube: OXH Gallery

Image Credits

Odeta Xheka