Trey Abdella is the kind of person you really want to be friends with, and after reading his interview, you’ll understand why. Listening to Ariana Grande one day and watching South Park in the background the next, studio time is always entertaining. Exposure to cartoons as a kid, and with parents whose punishment consisted of him crafting his own cartoons when he got into trouble, turned him into a professional creative. Today, that translates into him executing the trippy art below. Immersed in his own environment, Abdella creates truly crazy works – an amalgamation of styles from graphic textures to hyperrealism to glitchy caricatures. Viewing the works in person is an entirely different experience though, because he not only uses acrylic paint, but different materials and textures. So we suggest running, not walking, to his upcoming projects wherever they are in the world.
Courtesy of the artist and T293.
Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from originally and when did art first enter your life?
I’m from West Virginia where all there is to do besides meth is going back and forth between Walmart and Taco Bell multiple times a day. I guess art has always been in my life if you count watching cartoons and playing N64. My parents are the ones who really got me interested in making it though. As a kid I lived for watching TV, web browsing, and prank calling real estate agents, and, like most kids, I was always getting in trouble. When I would get grounded my parents wouldn’t let me get on the computer/watch tv/go outside, but they would give me paper and pencils telling me to “Draw my own cartoons”. So I did, and I’m pretty much still doing that today.
Courtesy of the artist and T293.
Has your work always taken on the style it currently embodies?
Definitely not, I feel like every year I end up finding a new direction I want to take my work into. After I feel like I’ve thoroughly explored something I usually move onto something else. I’m terrified of making things too repetitive, but I do have some recurring themes.
Courtesy of the artist and T293.
What type of feeling do you hope your works evoke for a viewer?
When someone sees my work I want them to feel like they just won a stuffed animal from their third attempt at a claw machine.
Courtesy of the artist and T293.
What’s a day in the studio like for you, and how long is the process from beginning a work until you finish it?
It usually starts with some good ol’ fashioned existential dread brought on by the New York Times. Then I do a couple sets of jumping back and forth to see how the painting looks from far away. I’ve been watching a good bit of South Park, Andrew Cuomo, and Disney Channel original movies in the background while I’m working as well as listening to 50s rock, rap, frog noises and Ariana Grande.
It takes me about a week and a half or so to finish a painting but it takes me a little longer to plan them out. I make a lot of mockup sketches in photoshop and I have this rule with myself that I have to let it sit on my computer for at least 4 days and still think it’s good before I make it, but most of them turn to shit in like an hour. After I plan one out it becomes kind of a puzzle trying to figure out how I can further manipulate the image with textures and materials to push it past its initial sketch.
Courtesy of the artist and T293.
From where do you draw inspiration?
A lot of my work comes from personal experiences like going to the DMV, getting drinks with friends, or third wheeling a date. I’m really interested in upping the drama in mundane day-to-day things we all experience.
Courtesy of the artist and T293.
If you could replace yourself with any character in a book, movie, cartoon, even a work of art, who would it be and why?
Hmm like right now? It would be fun to be Allan Parrish from Jumanji and just get sucked away into a board game jungle until Corona is over.
Courtesy of the artist and T293.
Comedy seems to be a recurring theme for you, from your Instagram handle to the titles of your work. Where do you think this comes from and how might it translate it into your art?
Lol is comedy a recurring theme for me? If it is I don’t really know how it translates into my work, I feel like my paintings are 10x more serious than I will ever be.
Courtesy of the artist and T293.
Does your work reference any Art Historical movements or individuals?
No, I do reference a lot of 70s advertisements though.
What do you have coming up?
I have a lot of projects coming up that I’m really excited to share when the time comes. In the immediate future, I have a solo show presentation at a Frieze NY viewing room with T293.
Courtesy of the artist and T293.
At the end of every interview, we like to ask the artist to recommend a friend whose work you love for us to interview next. Who would you suggest?
I can’t just list one. Tyler Reese, Anna Park, Hunter Potter, Danica Lundy, Jessica Westhafer, Chloe Chiasson, Mark Ryan Chariker. I COULD GO ALL DAY BABY!
