Exhibition Reception + Artist Talk
Saturday, January 24th, 2026 • 5-7PM • Old Masonic Hall
Exhibitions
Jodi Stuart: Second Life
January 24, 2026 - March 29, 2026
Bold, colorful, anthropomorphic forms take over the Old Masonic Hall Gallery in Second Life—an immersive exhibition by artist Jodi Stuart. Intrigued by the malleable potential of plastics, Stuart has spent her career exploring and pushing the boundaries of what is possible with this exuberant but complex medium. The results are joyful, life-sized sculptures that delight the eyes and excite the senses.
As our fall/winter 2025/2026 Artist in Residence, Stuart is working specifically in Breck Create’s Precious Plastic Initiative to prepare for this exhibition. According to the artist, she will “approach the use of recycled plastic, not as a ‘cure’ for the plastic waste problem, but as a pragmatic exploration of reclaimed plastic as a medium for artmaking.” Stuart is driven by the question, “We have all of this Precious Plastic, what is it good for?”
“It is precisely this question that excited me most about working with Jodi Stuart on this exhibition project,” says exhibition Curator, Jill Desmond. “We have this wonderful Precious Plastic Studio and program that we established for our creative community here in Breckenridge, and now we are looking to artists, like Jodi, to help us dream and bring to life the enormous artistic potential of what’s possible with this exciting material.”
Inspired primarily by plastic’s formal qualities such as color, shape, space, line, and texture, Stuart is “fascinated by the strange viscosity of heated plastic, it is never quite liquid, but very elastic and can change texture when manipulated.” These curious alchemical properties conjure and allude to the supernatural, compelling the artist to give in completely to the process and embrace the “melting gloppy appearance of the plastic.”
For this exhibition, Stuart will create a full gallery experience with moments of wonder, play, interaction, awe, and reflection. Immediately, the artist will launch gallery visitors into a magical world of twisted, woven, organic forms, followed by a fun interactive installation created specifically for this exhibition in the Precious Plastic Studio. Then, while embracing the unique architectural details of the historic Old Masonic Hall, Stuart will weave and wind her artworks through the space, engaging and highlighting nooks and crannies that would otherwise go unnoticed. The experience will culminate in the upper-level gallery, filled with newly created life-sized sculptures that writhe and bend and defy gravity in their twisted corporeal forms.
Jodi Stuart: Second Life exhibition opening reception will take place on Saturday, January 24, 2026, from 5-7pm with an Artist talk at 6pm. Free event with Lite bites, cash bar and music.
About the artist
JODI STUART
Jodi Stuart works across the mediums of sculpture, installation, and fiber. Stuart was born in New Zealand, where she attained a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Manukau Institute of Technology and an MFA from Auckland University. Stuart moved to the US with her family in 2011. She is currently based in Denver, Colorado. Recent solo exhibitions include: Toxic Positivity at The Art Base, Basalt, Future Fabulist at the Littleton Museum, Super Synthetic at The Whitney Center for the Arts, Sheridan, WY, and Currents 826 for Currents New Media, Santa Fe, NM. Notable collections include: The Moxy Boulder, Meta Platforms Los Lunas NM, Amazon Inc Denver, Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Denver, F5 Corporate HQ Seattle WA, and Meow Wolf Denver.