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.
IOWA CONTEMPORARY ART
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Celebrating The Hudson Collection
ICON Gallery is celebrating ICON’s collection of Shiva Linga Paintings by showing the entire
collection of 55 works in the Hudson Gallery on the ICON mezzanine. The show opens on
Friday, September 1st, 6:30 to 10:00pm.
Ten years ago David T. Hanson began working with Hudson, Founder and Director of the
New York art gallery Feature Inc., to organize an exhibition for ICON of a suite of 71 anonymous
Shiva Linga paintings that had been assembled by Hudson and the French poet Franck André
Jamme. Sadly, due to the unexpected death of Hudson, this exhibition had to be cancelled.
But two years later Hudson’s siblings granted Hanson permission to purchase twelve of the
paintings. He subsequently organized an exhibition at ICON of those twelve paintings along
with a few of his color photographs of Indian temples. Patricia Hudson was so impressed with
this small show and the Fairfield community’s interest in it that she and her two brothers
decided to very generously donate the remainder of the suite of paintings to ICON’s permanent
collection. In response, ICON created a dedicated space, the Hudson Gallery, to exhibit selections
of the Hudson Collection along with other related artworks.
Shiva Linga paintings on found paper are created anonymously in northwestern India by
practitioners of Tantrism, some of whom are artists, to represent and embody fundamental aspects
of Tantra, a vast and complex spiritual and philosophical practice. Made to awaken heightened
consciousness, these devotional images are used for visualization and meditation as part of
Tantra’s spiritual practices.
Despite their expression of an unbroken, centuries-old tradition, the works in this exhibition
(made between 1966 and 2004) seem both timeless and utterly contemporary. They also possess
a remarkable affinity with examples of twentieth-century abstract art.
NEXT 2024-25 ICON EXHIBITS:
Encore Quest for Beauty Slide Show Fundraiser (1800 Slides)
with Impressionistic Music Soundtrack
September 20th through October 3rd, 2024
1200 Portrait Slide Show Fundraiser with Classical Music Sound Track
October 4th through October 19th 2024
Biennual Art Auction
November 1st through December 11th, 2024
Madeline de Joly
February, March and April 2025
Judy Bales
May, June, July, 2025
Dan Hurlin: Motel
August, September, and October, 2025
Biennual Mini-Art Auction
November through December, 2025
Flea Market and Print Sale
1st Weekend of February, 2026
Coming in 2026…
Mark Petrick
Joanie McGinnis
Robert Hoerlein
Iowa City Abstract Artists at ICON
A new exhibition of abstract work by three Iowa City artists opens on First Friday,
July 5th, 6:30 - 10:00pm
“Iowa City has a wealth of talented artists,” says ICON Director Bill Teeple. “I’ve been
sharing some of that wealth in the last few years. It just so happens most of them
have been women.”
The three veteran artists from that community are Laura Young, Nancy Purington
and Anita Jung. All are abstract artists. However, no matter how abstract and
nonobjective the art becomes, the work can’t escape reference to the outer and
inner world. The work hits you with powerful aesthetic experience of color and form,
but each also delivers deep poetic, emotional and metaphysical content.
“As a painter, I am particularly interested in the metaphorical aspects of light and how
the amount of light in a picture affects our mood and reaction.” – Laura Young
“Observations and experiences in the way of water launched a lifelong quest for truth
about beauty and dynamism and forces within nature.” – Nancy Purington
“My work contemplates silence, edges, and the space between existence and
nothingness. It's impulsive, open-ended, awkward abstractions that ask recursive
and metaphysical questions. These imperfectly beautiful materials form awkward
abstractions that emanate a sense of impermanence and transition, mirroring a
cyclical acceptance and rejection of both their and my existence.” – Anita Jung
ICON Gallery is located at 58 N. Main Street, Fairfield. Gallery hours are noon to
5:00, Tuesday through Saturday. For more information iconbillteeple@gmail.com,
641-919-6252.
