Jonathan Tucker-Bull's image of mental health

The disturbing but evocative image of a sculpture spliced through with images of the artist represents Jonathan Tucker-Bull's disturbed relationship with his mother.

Her manic depression caused him to leave home at the age of just 16 and he turned to art as a form of therapy.

Now his work, Genetic Evolution forms one of a 1,000 exhibits in a new exhibition, Art Works in Mental Health, which opens at Dali Universe, County Hall Gallery, London, on Wednesday.

Like Jonathan each of the featured artists has had some connection with mental health problems and has used their art to express it.

People affected by mental illness need something to fill a vacuum in their life

Jonathan Tucker-Bull

Mental health

Jonathan said his art had saved him by providing a channel for all his negative energy.

"People affected by mental illness need something to fill a vacuum in their life.

"Art has represented a form of therapy for me and has really changed my life."

A portrait by WG Wilson

Ged Melling, a cartoonist for the Times, is also featured in the exhibition.

Ged who has a history of mental illness himself, lost his wife to mental illness.

He felt alone and depressed and turned to his art as a reason for getting out of bed each morning.

"Not only is art very cathartic for people with mental illness, but they also get somewhere else in their art that other people are too inhibited to reach.

"The resulting art is generally of a very high standard."

Inspiration

For another of the exhibitors it was the suicide of his three friends which drove him to art.

His piece "Three suicides - Keith, Steve, Kate" uses a graph and items to represent his friends and himself to chronicle their lives and to help him come to terms with their deaths.

"I know how art can have an enormously liberating effect. It can really help people through the bad times."

A collage by John Belford

It is estimated that during the course of a year, one in four people - that's up to 15 million people - in the UK will experience some sort of mental health problems.

By 2020 experts predict that depression will be second only to chronic heart disease as an international health burden.

The new exhibition, which will be touring the UK after it finishes in London on July 13th, hopes to use art to draw attention to mental health problems.

Stigma

Tony Russell, director of mental health consultancy Breakthrough and the newly appointed National Champion for Mental Health said he hoped the exhibition could help break down some of the stigma associated with mental health problems.

"As I know from my personal experience, mental distress can be difficult enough to deal with without having to suffer the persecution and discrimination that sometimes comes with it.

"Through my work as a photographer I know the power of art as a recognised therapeutic activity that can benefit the mental health of individuals and communities.

"Through this imitative and the use of art and creativity we hope to break down some of the barriers that exist as well as giving those people affected a medium through which to express themselves."

The exhibition will also tour Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds and Cardiff.