John D. Freyer
John D. Freyer
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John Freyer is an associate professor of cross-disciplinary media at VCUarts. Freyer is a Peer Recovery Support Specialist and a founding member of the Inclusive Recovery City initiative in Richmond, Va. His projects include the Free Narcan Bike, All My Life for Sale, Free Ice Water, Free Hot Coffee, & Free Hot Supper. Freyer is a Fulbright Scholar, a MacDowell Fellow and an artist-in-residence at Light Work & the Fannon Center, Doha. Freyer has brought his social practice projects to the TEDx stage, Mixed Greens Gallery in New York, the Liverpool Biennial Fringe and was a 2018 Tate Exchange Associate at Tate Modern. Freyer founded the traveling symposium Recovery in Practice at Columbia University in the Fall of 2023. Recovery In Practice has since been hosted at University of Derby, Teesside University in the UK in 2024, Virginia Commonwealth University and at the Portland Alano Club in 2025..
2025
Recovery in Practice PDX - The Alano Club of Portland and The Bodecker Foundation, Portland, OR. Hosted by Freyer, The Alano Club of Portland, The Bodecker Foundation, and VCUarts. A 2-day conference uniting artists, authors, activists and researchers for workshops, panel discussions, and community events that celebrate the broad and diverse national recovery community.
This annual event was previously hosted in NYC (2023), the United Kingdom (2024), and at Virginia Commonwealth University early this year.
2025
Recovery in Practice VCU- Institute of Contemporary Art, Richmond, VA - Hosted by John Freyer, VCU Humanities Research Center, VCUarts, Rams in Recovery, and Richmond’s Inclusive Recovery City Initiative at the Institute for Contemporary Art and 1708 Gallery from Thursday, April 17th – Saturday, April 19th, 2025.
The conference featured artists, writers, and activists with lived experience with substance use disorders and addiction. They discussed the important work the Richmond community is doing to celebrate folks in recovery recovery, reduce stigma for people who use drugs, and address the intersectional nexus between recovery and decarceration.
Recovery in Practice Exhibition - VCU Alumni
Presented by the Joseph Seipel Gallery, this exhibition showed visual artists who are alumni of the VCUarts program. The exhibition coincided with the first-ever “Recovery in Practice” conference to be held in Richmond, Virginia, and highlighted the journeys of artists who are navigating recovery, while continuing to cultivate powerful and thought-provoking practices
This exhibition not only showcased the resilience and creativity of VCUarts alumni but also complemented the broader mission of the “Recovery in Practice” conference. The exhibition invited viewers to contemplate how art can serve as a transformative tool for recovery and healing, both for the individual artist and for the community at large. As artists continue to engage in their creative processes, their work becomes a living testament to the power of recovery.
2024
Recovery in Practice UK - University of Derby and Teesside University, United Kingdom - “Recovery in Practice UK” (#RiP_UK) invited students, staff, and faculty, together with community members, to engage directly with the rich creative practices of our invited speakers and diverse community partners.
Expanding upon the success of the 2023 “Recovery in Practice” program at Columbia University. RiP UK hosted site-specific events at the University of Derby and Teesside University at the invitation of Dr David Patton and Recovery Connections.
“Recovery In Practice” expands on the Fifty/Fifty projects that John D. Freyer completed in 2018 at Tate Modern, London, Tate Exchange.
2023
Recovery in Practice NYC - Columbia University, New York, NY. - Freyer hosted an innovative gathering of artists, authors, activists, and scientific researchers as they share their stories and foster conversations about what it means to practice recovery at Columbia University.
Through social practice artworks, scientific research, and creative writing, conference speakers trained students and community members in best practices, coalition building, and harm reduction to achieve social impact for the Columbia and Manhattanville communities.
The Free Book Exchange is a mobile library of hope, gratitude and change. The public is invited to donate/exchange a book of significance that inspired a change in them, offered them hope or started them on a different path. The initial catalog was curated by John D. Freyer and features the creative output of artists and writers participating in the Recovery in Practice Conference at The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University. The Free Book Exchange is community building conversation on wheels about creative practice, human connection and the perseverance of persons in recovery.
The Free Naloxone Bike is used in coordination with Rams in Recovery to train and distribute the life saving opioid reversal drug Naloxone. Naloxone training and distribution has played a role in changing the statistical trajectory of opioid overdose in the Commonwealth. Since its' launch in February 2020, the Free Naloxone Bike has trained over 4,700 people and distributed 3,100 boxes of naloxone. The Free Naloxone Bike serves as an icon of Virginia Commonwealth University and VCU School of the Arts’ active response to the Opioid Crisis and plays a small but important role in efforts to combat the Opioid Emergency in the Commonwealth.
In 2024, Virginia Commonwealth University in partnership with Freyer, Rams in Recovery, VCU PD, and VCU Occupational Health and Safety launched the installation of "Opioid Emergency Kits" at over 200 locations across both campuses to further the goal to equip community members to be active bystanders and be helpful should the need arises, an important part of creating a community of care.
Richmond artist brings his Free Hot Coffee bike to London's Tate Exchange
Recovery Roast and the Free Hot Coffee Bike
The Free Hot Coffee Bike project was created by John D. Freyer in partnership with the Collegiate Recovery Program (CRP) at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2016. Rams in Recovery utilizes the bike on campus and has brought the bike around the country partnering with CRP's at the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Penn State, UVA and events in New York City.
In 2018, Freyer partnered with Tate Exchange at Tate Modern in London to launch the UK edition of the Free Hot Coffee bike for the first CRP in the UK at Teesside University which is based in part on the VCU CRP model.
Freyer made 10 Editions of Recovery Roast Coffee and have helped build more than 10 Free Hot Coffee Bikes around the world.
2020
FotoFika 2020 All Stars - FotoFika 2020 All Stars Trading Card Project includes images from 380 photography students from the Class of 2020 across the globe.
Created as a loose interpretation of Mike Mandel’s iconic Baseball Cards, the FotoFika 2020 All Stars celebrates the photography students in the Class of 2020 and serves as a way to introduce their work to reviewers, critics, curators and institutions that will be a part of their future as practicing artists.
2018
Tate Exchange Associate Artist - Tate Modern, London, UK - Invited to participate in the second year of new Tate Exchange Program. Freyer hosted a new iteration of his Fifty/Fifty projects. VCUarts was the first non-UK institution to be included in the program and John Freyer was the first Tate Exchange Associate from the USA. (Spring 2018)
This course, led by John Freyer and Michael Lease, takes place predominantly outside and includes guided photography walks throughout the city of Richmond and surrounding areas. The class explores the conceptual, narrative and logistical roots of participatory walking practice. Readings include Elastic City: Prompts for Participatory Walks, by Todd Shalom, “Wanderlust” by Rebecca Solnit, “Here is Where I Walk: Episodes From a Life in the Forest” by Leslie Carol Roberts and Walking and Mapping: Artists as Cartographers by Karen O'Rourke.
2018 - 2022
The Recovery Ally Choir provided a safe, joyful, and encouraging environment for members to celebrate recovery through music, singing and community.
Founded by John Freyer in 2018 and was last directed by Robin Rio in 2022. While membership is primarily composed of persons in long term recovery, most of whom are affiliated with twelve step programs, the choir open to multiple pathways to recovery and welcome recovery allies, friends and family to sing with them.
The Recovery Ally Choir seeks to help build a recovery-ready community in Richmond and beyond.
2017 - 2018
Close Shave unpacks the intimacy and vulnerability of a straight blade barber shop shave and the complicated relationships of service, friendship and privilege. Set in Richmond, Virginia, Close Shave re-enacts a specific turning point in the filmmaker's life, which was enabled and supported by an unlikely friendship forged in a time of chaos.
2019
We Want our Pictures Back
“We Want our Pictures Back” is a pop up portrait studio program that enables persons in recovery and their allies to have professional portraits and headshots made to celebrate their recovery journeys. Participants are NEVER asked if they are in recovery or participating as a recovery ally, so these images are images of people who care about all things recovery and there is no way to sort them out. The photographic history of persons in recovery often include images of them in active use. These new professional portraits serve as a record of the new path that we are on. These images are from the first edition of “We Want our Pictures Back” that was hosted by the South East Chapter Conference in 2019 and then presented at the 2020 National Conference of the Society for Photographic Education .
2024
The Free Parking Bike is a mobile park service that reimagines the use of public space by carrying a complete park on a Bicycle, turning an average parking space into an urban oasis.
Freyer installs a roll of astroturf the exact size and width of the largest Ford F150 sold in the United States to demonstrate the massive amount of space used by one parked vehicle.
The bike was launched at the Carytown Watermelon Festival, and have since "rolled it" to The Anderson Gallery in honor of Joe Seipel, the Institute for Contemporary Art, and were invited to participate in the 18th World Parking Day and the 2025 Capital One Arts Festival.
2025
Secret Double Secret
Secret Double Secret is a seasonal series of events by John Freyer and the Fifty/Fifty project hosted at The Anderson Gallery. The series aimed to transform forgotton and underutlizied spaces with scraps of astroturf, salvaged lawn furniture, and thrift store bicycles to create substance free spaces for community and conversation. Consisted of over 10 events during the duration of summer break, ending in "The Beach," a screening of VCUarts Faculty.
Gallery visitors are invited to sit in the adirondack chairs and take in a varying selection of events, including a 5:00 AM dance party and screenings of several cult-classic films.
2018
UNLOCATIONS: Here, There, and Everywhere
In partnership with the Arts Research Institute at VCUarts, Open Desk and Tasmeem 2017 Faculty Co-Chairs, UNLOCATIONS: Here, There, and Everywhere, reimagines the high-tech corporate teleconference as an always-on mobile gathering space - free from meeting agendas, powerpoint presentations and time constraints. In an age of Facetime, Facebook Live and Skype Mobile, the hard-wired institutional conference rooms, with fixed cameras and static seating arrangements, leave little room for spontaneous conversations, creative engagement or fun.
UNLOCATIONS reclaims underutilised public/private spaces, repurposes surplus digital technologies and actively engages open source makerspaces around the world to create a network of mobile multipurpose kiosks where participants can meet for a cup of coffee/tea, play a game of backgammon or chess, and engage in face-to-face, distraction-free conversation.
2018
Recovery Roast Cupping Event - Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, Richmond VA - The Fifty/Fifty project, a traveling series of interdisciplinary, social practice art projects that create and contributes to dialogue on addiction and recovery, in collaboration with VCU’s Rams in Recovery for a special coffee tasting event at the ICA. Participants were invited to taste a variety of coffees from Lamplighter Coffee Roasters, roasted fresh by their team of experts. This coffee “cupping” event introduced participants to the rich history of coffee and the complexities of roasting, tasting and enjoyment.
New Dominion - Mixed Greens Gallery - NYC - 2015
2017
#Exstrange eBay Archive Project - Online exhibition Curated by Rebekah Modrak and Marialaura Ghidini.
From the site:
#exstrange was a live exhibition project that used the online marketplace eBay as a site of curatorial operation, artistic production and cultural exchange; a project that operated within the geographical boundaries enabled by the commercial platform the curators, Marialaura Ghidini and Rebekah Modrak, appropriated—the various ‘national’ eBay sites.
2016
Fifty/Fifty, Performance/Workshop, Liverpool Biennial Fringe, The Brink, Liverpool, UK.
The Brink
The Brink
15-21 Parr Street, Liverpool, L1 4JN
American Artist, John D. Freyer brings Fifty/Fifty, his collection of interdisciplinary, social practice art projects to the Liverpool Biennial Fringe. Freyer will host three public events at The Brink; FREE ICE WATER, FREE HOT COFFEE, and FREE HOT SUPPER. Freyer’s projects create a space for individuals, groups, and communities to have meaningful conversations about addiction and recovery. All events are open to the public.
2016
Artist in Residence, Fanoon Center for Print Media Research, Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar, Doha.
Free Ice Water, Performance, Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar , Doha, Qatar.
2016
Jack and the Bag of Death, Featured Radio Story, Transom.org, Woods Hole, MA. June, 7, 2016
2016 - Fifty/Fifty - Solo Exhibition
2016 - Fifty/Fifty - Solo Exhibition
1780 Gallery - Richmond, VA
1780 Gallery - Richmond, VA
Artfulness Online Workshop
My practice served as an introduction to an Art/Mindfulness project call Artfulness, created by Molly Ransone from the VCU ALT Lab. I also created a photography activity based on my Fulbright Fellowship - IKEA Research in Stockholm Sweden.
2013
Light Work, Artist in Residence, Syracuse University. The Light Work Artist in Residence program is the longest running photography specific residency program in the country. They support approximately twelve artists annually for month long residencies with 24 hour facilities access, an apartment and stipend.
2013
LiveIKEA.com, Installation/Performance with Dr Johan Lindquist, IKEA Tampines, Singapore. Part research, part performance, part exhibition, LiveIKEA.com was a continuation of prior ethnographic research into IKEA by John Freyer & Johan Lindquist. After coopting and transforming one of the model apartments in the store into a live/work photographic studio, Freyer and Lindquist lived for three days in the store and conducted interviews and made photographs of IKEA customers.
2011
Dress Up, Urban Video Project, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. The Urban Video Project is a curated month long exhibition of moving image work, projected on the exterior of the Everson Museum in Syracuse, NY. Dress Up is a three panel HD video project.
2011
Fulbright Research Fellowship to Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden. The Fulbright Research Fellowship is a highly competitive international scholar exchange program sponsored by the US State Department. The award supported my interdisciplinary collaboration with Social Anthropologist Johan Lindquist from Stockholm University.
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