Installation view, The Only Sea in the World with No Land Boundaries at OXH gallery in Tampa, Florida.
By ANNA SHUKEYLO March 18th, 2026
The Only Sea in the World with No Land Boundaries at OXH gallery in Tampa, Florida is an elaborate collaboration with the gallery’s visionary Odeta Xheka, digital artist Santiago Echeverry, and the star of the show Etty Yaniv, whose body of work has been presented in new and innovative ways in this experimental space. Etty Yaniv is a Brooklyn-based multimedia artist who primarily works in recycled materials with a focus on natural phenomena and organic chaos. Her work hones themes of beauty within nature’s might and chaos, interwoven with patterns of movement and rhythm. For this exhibition she and Odetta Xheka who is the owner and the curator of the gallery, joined creative efforts with digital artist Santiago Echeverry who has reimagined Yaniv’s pieces in the digital realm.
The curator and the artist added interactive elements throughout the the show such as ballet performance by the Tampa City Ballet. The installation of Yaniv’s light and airy plastic wave-like pieces sprawl across the gallery walls which is familiar to anyone who knows her work, however, the unusual element is the embedded screen with video that reworks the sculptural forms into AI digital renditions and place the work in fantastical virtual space. The perpetually moving videos offer another dimension to the space, taking the viewer on a wild ride of the palpable chaos that the artist is inspired by. The digitized flow of Santiago Echeverry’s renditions, integrated into Etty Yaniv’s sculptural environment, expand the conversation of the boundaries of Yaniv’s work as AI generated visuals transform the surface and enhance the impact.
Odeta Xheka’s curatorial vision was the catalyst for bringing the entire collaboration into being. As the curator of The Only Sea in the World with No Land Boundaries, she was the first to imagine Etty Yaniv’s sculptural language extending beyond its physical form and into a digitally augmented environment. The underlying focus of the show is movement, but this idea unfolds in multiple intertwined layers that expand far beyond simple physical motion. The evolution of Ettie Yaniv’s work, honed over many years – has transformed into immersive experiences. Santiago Echeverry, an established Columbian digital artist, worked with Yaniv to make the AI informed videos for the installation that blend the artists’ works. Yaniv’s forms combined with Echeverry’s own twist that is reminiscent of his figurative series. The result is dynamic moving imagery that is interactive with the surroundings, sculptural forms, and performers. Together, their work exemplifies how sculpture and digital media can converge. Yaniv’s tactile material structures informing Echeverry’s digitally generated visuals create a multidimensional viewer experience.
Installation view, The Only Sea in the World with No Land Boundaries at OXH gallery in Tampa, Florida.
During the evening of February 20th, Etty Yaniv’s sculptural and digital media installation created an immersive environment that became an active stage for Tampa City Ballet’s insitu performance. This is not the first time the artist has worked with dancers, in 2023 Yaniv collaborated with dancer Tiffany Mangulabnan in briefly gorgeous at Norte Maar CounterPointe10 in Brooklyn, where the performance involved structures made by Yaniv. Within the OXH Gallery exhibition, dancers Marta Ortega and Brian Gonzalez engaged directly with the installation, their movements echoing and activating the textures, colors, and spatial rhythms of Yaniv’s sculptural world.
The collaboration transformed the exhibition into a live, multidimensional dialogue between physical bodies, material structures, and digital projections. When the performers Marta Ortega and Brian Gonzalez moved through and around the installation, their gestures activated these sculptural tides, creating a unified choreography of bodies, materials, and digital light. The dancers introduced fluid movements, embodying the improvisational nature of the performance, creating a living counterpoint to the visual rhythms of the installation.
Importantly, Yaniv’s commitment to recycled materials in her work continues to resonate throughout the show. The repurposed materials that appear to be in the midst of transformation, capturing the tension between stasis and fluidity, come from otherwise discarded plastics that would serve as pollutants in the environment. The juxtaposition of both something beautiful and material that can wreak havoc in the natural world is among Yaniv’s greatest. She plays with the recycled materials to speak of the natural world, evoking waves, tides, and cyclical patterns out of plastics and acrylic skins. WM