IOWA CONTEMPORARY ART
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Tantra: Ancient and Modern by David T. Hanson
In 2013, as David Hanson was organizing an exhibition for ICON Iowa Contemporary Art
of Anonymous Shiva Linga Paintings and his photographs of Indian temples, he created a
large diptych for the entry to the gallery, pairing a painting with one of his photographs.
Intrigued by this combination, Hanson began what became a large series of diptychs and
triptychs, juxtaposing his photographs of ancient Tantra sites in India and Nepal
(taken during seven extended trips to South Asia) with Tantra paintings from his personal
collection and ICON’s collection of Anonymous Shiva Linga Paintings.
ICON is now pleased to present an exhibition of a selection of prints from Hanson’s series
“Tantra: Ancient and Modern” (2013-2022), opening on October 7 in ICON’s upstairs
Hudson Gallery. The exhibition will also feature a new group of Shiva Linga paintings,
most of which have not been shown before in the Hudson Gallery, and will include the video
that Hanson and Allen Cobb created of the Shiva Linga paintings accompanied by the
traditional Vedic chanting of The Thousand Names of Shiva.
In the words of the renowned editor Mark Holborn, “[Hanson’s] combinations present
a narrative that is comparable to the experience of wandering through the narrow
streets and temples of the Indian subcontinent. We are offered a route of
unparalleled visual power that is both timeless and of this time, glimpsed through the
camera lens and created through the most delicate of brush strokes.”
ICON Gallery is located at 58. N. Main Street, Fairfield, IA. Gallery hours are Tuesday
through Saturday Noon to 5:00. For more information contact Bill: iconbillteeple@gmail.com
or 641 919 6252.
NEXT 2023 ICON EXHIBITS:
GLIMPSE OF WORKS FROM THE ICON PERMANENT COLLECTION
March 3 through June 10, 2023
A GLIMPSE OF THE
ICON PERMANENT COLLECTION
Opens Friday, March 3rd, 2023
ICON Gallery presents a glimpse of its permanent collection in an exhibit opening on the
First Friday of March, March 3rd, 6:30 – 10:00. The show runs through June 10th.
ICON has been a gathering together a collection of art over its 21-year history. There are now
over 400 works in the collection. Art has been donated by supporters and purchased by ICON
from artists who have exhibited at the ICON Gallery. Art has also been pledged to the
collection by artists and collectors in Fairfield.
ICON founder and Director Bill Teeple, feels the collection should celebrate the strong
contemporary art produced in Fairfield in the last 30 years of the twentieth century and early
21st century, but he also feels that the collection should honor a broad spectrum of work.
“Since ICON’s mission is educational,” says Teeple, “I want the collection to be an educational
body of work that teaches us of other cultures, and of the value of divergent approaches and
points of view. Pieces by world famous artists such as Sam Francis and Salvador Dali stand
next to works by known and unknown Fairfield artists, work from different cultures, and work
by outsider artists.”
Bill Teeple’s vision is to have ICON Gallery go forward into the future as a unique small
museum that presents work from the permanent collection along with pieces on long term loan
from regional artists, dealers and collectors.
The goal is not to create a small-scale version of what an art museum is expected to be, but
rather to create a space that takes the viewer on a trip through a spectrum of art sensibilities.
ICON Gallery is located at 58 N. Main Street, Fairfield. Gallery hours are Tuesday through
Saturday, !2:00 to 5:00.
For further information contact Bill, 641-919-6252, iconbillteeple@gmail.com.
IOWA CONTEMPORARY ART | 58 North Main Street, Fairfield, IA 52556
641-919-6252 | bill@icon-art.org | iconbillteeple@gmail.com
GALLERY HOURS: Tuesday through Saturday, 12:00 to 5:00pm and by appointment.
ICON is an IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit educational charity. All donations are tax-deductible.
