Trey Abdella in his studio
(Translated from German)
What happens when longing for a better past becomes an obsession? American artist Trey Abdella shows how nostalgic ideals tip into the grotesque and the threatening.
Trey Abdella’s work moves between nostalgia, violence, and grotesque domesticity. The immaculately manicured suburban garden does not stand for the promise of the American Dream in his work, but rather for latent uncanniness and psychological tension. Through painting, sculpture, and assemblage, the 31-year-old weaves together pop-cultural motifs, postwar family imagery, and surreal, exaggerated scenes into a precise mirror of social contradictions. On the occasion of his exhibition Cold Front at Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler in Berlin, we spoke with him.