Release: An Odyssey of Art and Recovery

For more than a decade, the Odyssey House Art Project (OHAP), people living with substance use and mental health disorders, has been helping its members find new ways to access feelings and a new medium in which to express them. Since it’s inception, the OHAP has produced a vast body of incredible work and put on seven exhibitions.

To celebrate this creative process and bring the artwork to a wider audience, we have published Release: An Odyssey of Art and Recovery, a provocative book with more than 90 artworks created by members of the OHAP. Curated by Justin Peters, Vice Chairman of the Odyssey House Board of Trustees, with the help of President and CEO Dr. Peter Provet and others, Release was created as a narrative experience, representing the journey from birth to rebirth as a person copes and creates through mental illness and substance use disorders.

"Tattoo Boy," created by young men in treatment at the Leadership Center, at the book launch party held at Pablo’s Birthday in the Lower East Side.

The men and women represented in this book are largely untrained. Most have never visited a museum or gallery, and almost all struggle to communicate. Their brave creations are instinctive, even spontaneous, responses to having space and permission, to explore. When given a choice, most choose to create. This is a look at our shared human experience, with the depth of raw, unfiltered expression.

Please visit odysseyhouseart.org to view an excerpt from the book and make a donation to receive a copy of your own (minimum donation $110; $50 tax-deductible). Your contribution will help us purchase art supplies, provide educational materials, and introduce men and women in recovery to the wealth of culture offered in museums and art galleries throughout New York City.

The team behind Release: Chris Cantley, Jennifer Eggers, Jerald Frampton, Justin Peters, Chad Porter, Isobelle Surface & Mike Begley