Trey Abdella’s‍ Bug Bites on view at KMAC Contemporary Art Museum

There’s something familiar about the atmosphere created within Americana horror. Mediating between kitsch and craft, writers such as Stephen King invite readers into a landscape all of its own—somewhere between quintessential American literature, the uncanny, and the bizarre. As a genre, these facets of media capture the unexpected that lurks beneath the surface whilst breaking the facade of American exceptionalism. Through this subversion of normalcy, a unique heterotopia is created via brazen exploration of material and discomfort. Bug Bites, an exhibition by Trey Abdella on view at KMAC Contemporary Art Museum, faces this kitsch head on through the accumulation of objects and images of a neighborhood not too far away, and maybe even serves as a parallel to our own.