- Located in Tampa, OXH Gallery is a female-led space dedicated to showcasing works by nationally and internationally renowned women artists.

Their latest exhibition showcases how two artists with different backgrounds approach costume design and performance.

(ambient music) - I was always drawn to both Rima and Venera.

I never really saw them in relation or in conversation to each other until I felt that in a space pristine and white like this, I just wanted a pop of color and the sort of texture that is there, but it's not really there.

So you have video and you have a lot of texture, but then it's still a screen.

It's very sleek.

And then you have all these books and you have so much knitting and the thread and the needle work, but at the same time, it's so pristine.

You're almost afraid to touch.

Having those conversation, you know, blindly white space, that was done on purpose because I wanted people to just take in color.

(gentle ambient music) - I think Odeta's perspective in the local Tampa scene is elevating women, looking at the contemporary scene as something more of an open-ended question rather than a set idea of, this is just like artists that we've seen over this course of the past couple of years.

She's introducing a lot of new artists, a lot of women artists, elevating that front and kind of creating an open space just for community, welcoming other people, like especially with like the growing Tampa art scene.

(gentle whimsical music) (gentle whimsical music) - It takes the cues from telling a story.

Between the books, you flip the pages of the books.

And the videos, each video you see a different part of a story being told.

And by having something very tactile, such as Rima's work with something super technology-oriented like Venera's, "Red Gasps" also makes a point of connection that art is not just on the eye of the beholder, but it's also a whole concept.

So what you look at is one thing, but also it should sort of push you more into thinking about what you're looking at.

(gentle whimsical music) (gentle whimsical music) (pensive music) - Her agenda to bring internationally known artists to Tampa and letting us see that, it's really great to see new voices, but also from voices that we're not really used to and always in places that we know about, but we don't know what's happening in them.

And it's great to see here.

- I think it's really incredible to be able to walk up some stairs and find international artists.

And I think it's really important to showcase art from all over the world and really have like local people be exposed to that.

(gentle music) - OXH Gallery actually stands for my own initials.

I am originally born, raised in Albania, and the reason why I named it after myself is because I am a female.

I am a immigrant.

I've made the States my home, but that's really not where I was born and raised.

So by putting a name, my name to the gallery, I sort of make a state that this is my place and this is who I truly am and how I have fully become myself in a country, in a culture that has accepted me.

It allowed me to be fully integrated.

(people chattering) - She is so incredibly bright and she has such vision for art.

And I'm a Tampa native and our local art scene has leaned a little bit more towards the decorative side of art for many, many years.

With Odeta coming in, she's bringing an intellectualism to it and an aestheticism that is very different from what we've seen before.

So I think it's a void that needed to be filled in our Tampa art world for sure.

(Angela chattering) (pensive music) - I continue to make art.

I continue to exhibit as an artist.

What I find very inspiring at this stage of my life is that besides putting my own point of view and my sensibility and my aesthetics out there, also since thankfully I'm able to do it, to provide a sanctuary for women artists.

The sense of pride that I get so far from running the gallery is the fact that this artist trust me well enough to allow me to also use my own concepts of how their work should be showcased.

- "Red Gasps" really brings that idea of intimacy into a very sacred space.

I think that the detail in Rima's work is so stunning with the soft quality of the thread exploding into a space that feels shocking in a way with how the craftsmanship is so subtle, so detailed.

There's so much care in all of her work.

And I think that echoes really well with Venera's work.

It's something that has so much care in the costumes.

You can tell there's a lot of attention to detail, but definitely just like the stop motion quality of her costumes.

Like there's time and there's a lot of care and it goes beyond the element of craft.

It definitely feels like there's a warmth there.

- There is a whole lot of art going on in Tampa.

The art ecosystem is very vibrant.

What I feel in a sense, it sort of speaks to itself and my contribution to the already set-up ecosystem is to bring artists that otherwise would not really find their way in Tampa.

(gentle music) (bright music) - [Host] To learn more, visit OXHgallery.com.