Exhibit Depicting Complexities Of Cotton Opens At Tampa Museum

TAMPA, FL — The beauty, history and heartache of the American cotton crop is explored in an exhibit featuring the works of artist Thomas Sayre through July 26 in the Farish Family Gallery of the Tampa Museum of Art.

White Gold: Thomas Sayre is an immersive installation by the America artist that depicts a cotton-filled Southern landscape. The work intends to express the beauty, the complexity and the tragedy of America's embroiled agricultural traditions.

Cotton is one of the nation’s most contentious and layered materials, linked to the economic, racial and social history of the region and its people. Sayre’s White Gold refers to cotton and a reverence for the land, the labor and the people (forced or unforced) who made cotton their livelihood.

“White Gold began many years ago when I was in college," said Sayre. "I was attending one of the first fiddler’s conventions in central North Carolina. I vividly remember in the early morning hours venturing out into the adjacent fields into the rows and felt compelled to drop to the ground, face up, looking at the stars... I experienced a profound sense of rough beauty which pulled me in while, at the same time, my mind struggled with the stories about our Southern landscape which so often cry of decay, loss, tragedy and sometimes violence."

“White Gold: Thomas Sayre presents a thoughtful mediation of the Southern landscape,” said Joanna Robotham, curator of modern and contemporary art. “The ethereal quality of Sayre’s artwork prompts reflections of time, history and place."

Sayre is a Raleigh, North Carolina-based artist who is best known for his large-scale earthcast sculptures. He has created public installations around the world.

The Tampa Museum of Art is located at 120 W. Gasparilla Plaza, Tampa.