Art Gallery

Opening in May

Jodi Stuart: Future Fabulist 

Exhibit Dates: Friday, May 31, 2024 – Sunday, August 18, 2024 

In Future Fabulist, Jodi Stuart explores the aesthetic of the digital technologies that saturate our lives, in relation to tactile and sensory experience. Her woven sculptural forms are made using the plastic filaments intended for 3D-printers. Through her materials and processes, Stuart replaces the computer with the human hand subverting the materials of high-tech culture in a nostalgic gesture towards the hand made.  

Stuart’s Future Fabulist exhibition consists of anamorphous, quirky and vaguely biological forms created by hand using a 3D-pen and plastic filaments. These are combined with colorful and pixelated background imagery, as well as super-synthetic materials such as acrylic rods and industrial foams. These works allude to craft traditions including weaving, knitting, and basket making; while hinting at virtual space, neural networks, cloud computing, and biomimicry. Her art practice explores ideas around the invasive materiality of consumer plastics, while playing on aspects of the virtual versus the physical, by integrating notes of contemporary culture’s aesthetic of hyper-stimulation and sensory overload. 

This body of work was initially inspired by a depiction of the inner workings of a cell from the computer animation called ‘The Inner Life of the Cell’ by Harvard University Biology Department, produced in 2006. The hyperrealist, educational, computer-generated imagery demonstrates the mechanisms of cellular processes, and in Stuart’s view, inscribing machinic connotations onto the tiny organic forms. Biology and technology have become increasingly interwoven since then. For example, describing cellular processes as ‘tiny machines’, medical treatments as 'bio-hacks', or even the term ‘genetic engineering.’  

In combination, Stuart’s bright synthetic colors, layered filaments, and textures combine to create optical and visceral sensations hinting at the insidious nature of technology and biomechanics. Her tone is kitsch, colorful, and playful in appearance, with forms that are ambiguous in meaning. Overall, she aims to create an immersive visceral experience where the viewer must constantly resist touching the deliberately inviting works.   

About the Artist  

Jodi Stuart was born in New Zealand, where she attained a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Manukau Institute of Technology, Auckland, and an MFA from Auckland University. Stuart currently lives, works, and teaches in Denver.   

Now based at TANK Studios, Stuart has previously been an artist in residence at RINO Art Park, part of Redline Denver’s Satellite Program. As well as exhibiting in her home country of New Zealand, Stuart has exhibited in California, Colorado, Michigan, Maryland, Texas, and Washington. 

Exhibit Events

Opening Reception: Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 5:30 p.m. 

Light appetizers and beverages will be served. No RSVP necessary.

Artist Talk with Jodi Stuart: Thursday, June 20, 2024 (2 p.m. - 3 p.m.)

Jodi Stuart will speak about her ‘Future Fabulist’ exhibit, including a gallery tour.

No RSVP necessary.