Marchon Eyewear recently hosted an art exhibit in its New York City showroom. The event, Re-Visions of Art, showcased artists who converted recycled eyewear into artistic pieces. Over 150 VIP guests, media representatives and Marchon employees spent the night viewing art, talking to the artists and listening to music.

Marchon partnered with Innereactive Media to scout out artists for the exhibit. In 2014, they visited ArtPrize, an international art competition and nonprofit organization searching for artists who specialize in working with recycled materials. Marchon and Innereactive Media then chose seven talented artists and commissioned them to create original artwork using eyewear, lenses, frames, cases and materials—all produced by Marchon.

The artists presented their highly anticipated work at the Re-Visions of Art exhibit and were available to talk with guests throughout the night. Each artist took a different approach with his or her work and used the eyewear materials in unique ways. Derek Stephens, a multimedia artist from Michigan, created the whimsical “Tree of Spectacle” piece. He used plastic frame parts to construct the tree’s bark, plastic lenses for the leaves and various other materials to create this colorful piece.

Gianluca Traina, an Italian artist, took a different approach and created an optical illusion entitled “Private Eye.” On a 2D surface, he placed 578 lenses in a sequence with an inclination of 45 degrees. When guests took a step back they could see that the lenses were placed perfectly together to create an image of an eye staring back at them. Artist and designer Timothy Gabriel also used a similar method in his design, “How Do You See the World?” Guests also had to view the piece from afar to read what it said. He wrote out the phrase, “How do you see the world?” using mixed media, paint, frames and lenses. Gabriel used features of Abstract Expressionism to create the dialog needed in this perspective work of art.

“Re-Visions of Art came from one of many brainstorm meetings in regards to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility),” states Antonio Izzo, Marchon’s VP of global marketing. “We wanted to take pieces of eyewear that would normally be thrown away or recycled and turn them into something beautiful. Approaching solutions creatively is key to problem solving.”

This event allowed both artists and guests to see eyewear in a new way through the use of recyclable materials. Marchon plans to expand this program on an international scale and give other artists the ability to create artwork from recycled eyewear in their communities, as well as working with charities, schools and customers around the world for its next project.

—Jillian Urcelay