Recently wham caught up with art gallery owner Christine Xuereb, also known as Christine X to find out more about this very interesting venture:
I have always been interested in art – my earliest memory was of me drawing for classmates and my best subjects at school were always art and maths – and although my plan was initially to become an architect, my life choices led me to take up art as my major subject, eventually taking History of Art and Anthropology at university. With my bad memory and lack of interest in the history of art before modern times, I was slacking but my strong interest in Anthropology kept me focused and I graduated in both in 2001.
My interest in opening an art gallery started during my time at university and the interest grew during my stay in BC, Canada in 2002, seeing all the beautiful art galleries that there was there.
Upon my return to Malta, I went back to the unhealthy relationship I had run away from when I left Malta. I got pregnant. Putting the health and safety of myself and the child first, I left the abusive relationship and embarked on the journey of raising the child myself. My father, being in the property business, happened to have a space available and knowing that I always wanted to have my own art gallery, thought it would be great to start me off.
I knew nothing about running a business, let alone an art gallery business, and had to also deal with healing my mental wounds as well as looking after my new-born child. Things really started to kick off once we passed the first five years into the business, once I had learnt more about the gallery business and what the local market was after. It is now 16 years since I had opened the gallery in 2004 and I am constantly learning about new trends and talented artists joining the market
Wham asked Christine X what type of art she is most drawn to:
Myself, I believe I am more drawn towards expressive fine art paintings, particularly figurative paintings, but the Maltese market is mainly after Maltese landscape paintings. I do exhibit what the market is after, but I still exhibit figurative and abstract paintings to keep the right balance. I have held many exhibitions at the gallery, elsewhere locally and abroad and it’s been a great experience throughout the years.
These days, I have been thinking of broadening on the type of art I display and I’m planning on introducing original prints, photography and contemporary art in another section of the gallery, under a new name. I want my space to be more educational as I believe it can also serve as a tool to bring people to appreciate different art by being more exposed to it.
I recently spent some time living in West Africa and I got to appreciate African art even more than I already did – that is contemporary African art. I would very much like to eventually focus on African art but it’s an ongoing process. The problem is that I appreciate a lot of different art and can never have enough space to exhibit all that I would love to.
In the meantime I invite art lovers to come visit the gallery, the website www.christinexart.com and to give me their feedback, and to join our Instagram and facebook pages here https://m.facebook.com/christinexartgallerysliema/ and https://www.instagram.com/christinexartgallerymalta/
Christine X art gallery can be found at 17, Tigne street – Sliema, SLM 3141
Do you have a passion for art and you would like to share your talent with our followers? Contact us or email us at [email protected]
