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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Judy Bales Exhibition is Open through July 12th
A new show, Sliding Parameters: Fiber Art and Fashion by Judy Bales, opens at ICON Gallery on Friday,
May 2nd, 6:30 to 10:00 pm, The show combines a gallery exhibit with live events. The exhibition
continues through July 12th.
Judy Bales is one of the most unique and creative artists living in Fairfield. Having established a
successful art career making sculpture and public art, she has, in the last 15 years, ventured into
the world of wearable art, combining sculpture and the human body. The result is a dynamic and
beautiful art form.
This exhibition will showcase her fashion art, which is part of a larger body of fiber art works, many
of which are abstract sculptures. The fashion and sculptural works are interrelated, and the structural
techniques and surface treatments are often the same. The exhibition will feature her fashion art
along with purely sculptural works.
The groupings in the exhibit show both the evolution of Judy’s work and the range of materials, mood,
forms and silhouettes she has explored in fashion design.
Judy will give two slide presentations describing the history of fashion as an art form and the jaw
dropping work that is done throughout the world in the field of fashion.
A live fashion event will be part of the exhibition - an actual runway show with models emerging
from the mezzanine area and descending the stairs.
There will, also, be gallery walk-through with Judy Bales and Bill Teeple.
More details on all Judy’s events are listed below.
A new show opens in the Hudson Gallery at ICON on First Friday, April 4th, 6:30 to
10:00 pm. A selection of 13 paintings from the ICON Collection of Shiva Linga paintings
will be on display. All of these works were made by tantrika families in the city of Udaiper
in Rajasthan, India. The exhibition will be on view through March, 2026.
The French poet Franck André Jamme first encountered South Asian Tantra paintings in
1970 in an art gallery in Paris. Jamme was fascinated by these paintings that were so close
to Western modern art, from Kazimir Malevich and Paul Klee to Agnes Martin and
Daniel Buren, and many others. During the subsequent years, Jamme discovered books
on Tantra art and he decided to try to find the artists who were creating these works.
Following several unsuccessful trips to India, including a horrific bus accident and three
years of recovery, he returned in 1989, beginning his search in the city of Udaïpur. There
he consulted a friend’s astrologer and soothsayer, who shed light on his mission and put
him in touch with two families of tantrika artists that were creating Tantra paintings. Over
the next few years, Jamme was introduced to a number of different tantrika families
throughout the state of Rajasthan and was given permission to bring some of their works
to Europe and America. Eventually he collaborated with Hudson, founder of the New York
gallery, Feature Inc., to assemble the collection of Shiva Linga paintings that now form
The Hudson Collection at ICON.
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.
Tantra Art from Udaipur in ICON Hudson Gallery
NEXT 2025-26 ICON EXHIBITS:
Robert Hoerlein: Works on Paper 2019 to 2025
August 1st, through October 18th, 2019 to 2025.
Oil, acrylic and graphite on paper, 24" x 19
Biennial Mini-Art Auction
November through December, 2025
Mini Art Auction
Flea Market and Print Sale
1st Weekend of December, 2025
COMING IN 2026…
Gillian Brown
Mark Petrick
Madeline de Joly Retrospective
Judy Bales
Gyan and Kathy Shrosbree
