Out of the Landfill Into the Art World

Ken Marquis

Almost anything can become art and these days almost anything does–even old hubcaps.  With the help of a number of  professional artists and through the vision of one art gallery owner and framer from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, even old hubcaps are making it out of the landfill and into the art world.

The project is knock-your-socks-off cool and the results are amazing– and you know how we love recycling and re-purposing here at Peachygreen– so here’s the scoop on how 1041 old hubcaps are being transformed into contemporary works of art and will become part of an online gallery, a book, and a traveling show.

Ken Marquis, is the owner of  Marquis Art & Frame, in Wilkes- Barre, Pennsylvania and the brains behind  the Landfill Art project. Ken cleans up old hubcaps from the 1950′s and ’60′s and delivers them to selected fine artists who use them as ” metal canvases” . He started in 2008 with 41 metal canvases and 41 artists and there are now over 1000 artists participating in the project and it is far from over.  Eventually, it is hoped that artists from all over the world will participate and a traveling exhibit and book will be produced.

Have a look at some of the work.

Kristen Stein

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Lorraine Kwan

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Julia R. Berkley

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Don Lomax

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Jan Karpisik

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Lynne Taetzsch

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Anthe

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I told you it was cool stuff.  You can view the entire gallery on the Landfillart.org website. That is also the place to go if you would like to keep up on what’s doing with the project or if you are a fine artist who would like to apply to become a participant.

In the meantime,  Ken Marquis gets a Peachygreen kudo for his originality and creativity in getting those hubcaps out of the landfill and onto the internet as original works of art.