If your idea of a strong Friday night includes rooftop cocktails, contemporary art, and the kind of hotel setting that makes you briefly sit up straighter for no reason, The Tampa EDITION has you covered. On Friday, March 27, the hotel is hosting Rooftop Art Exhibition x Keya Tama from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. at The Tampa EDITION (500 Channelside Dr), marking the first time the property has collaborated with an international artist.
The featured exhibition, Tied by Time, is created by Keya Tama, a South African artist based in New York City whose work explores the tension between ancient iconography and modern folklore. His practice leans on recurring images of people, animals, and nature, which is a wonderfully elegant way of saying his work looks like it might know secrets you don’t.
Photos via Keya Tama
Tied by Time is curated exclusively for this one-night showing and centers on paintings and tapestries that examine how meaning builds through repetition, attention, and time. That sounds lofty, and it is, but in the good way. This is not “stare at a canvas and pretend to understand suffering” art. It is work built around pattern, structure, and human experience, which feels especially fitting on a rooftop above Water Street, where everything already looks a little cinematic after dark.
The event is complimentary and open to the public starting at 8 p.m., with food, drinks, and art available for purchase. There will also be a live DJ, because apparently the only thing better than seeing original art on a rooftop is doing it with a soundtrack and a very decent excuse to order another cocktail.
Photos via Keya Tama
And the night doesn’t just end when you’ve finished your thoughtful nodding at the tapestries. After the exhibition, the celebration continues with an after-party at Arts Club inside the hotel, complete with light bites and cocktails available for purchase. Which is ideal, really, because once you have absorbed a body of geometric abstraction under the stars, the natural next step is to drift downstairs and continue being interesting.
What makes this one worth circling is that it doesn’t really feel like a generic hotel activation assembled by committee. Keya Tama has real international reach, The Tampa EDITION is giving the work a dramatic setting, and the whole evening sounds built for people who want a night out that feels a little more elevated than the usual dinner-and-scroll routine. Tampa gets plenty of events. This one sounds like it might actually linger in your brain after the valet ticket is gone.