Meet Brian Elstak…

The young man standing in front of the bar at restaurant Toko MC, is the very picture of an intellectual guy with ‘swag’; with his rough beard, black framed glasses, MC-attire and a pair of old-skool sneakers, his impeccable knowledge and love for creativity and Hip Hop, shows. He embraces me and forgives me my late arrival. ‘Where do you wanna sit?’, he asks with a smile. ‘I don’t have much time though – I have to leave for The Hague in 45 minutes, but we can hang on the couch outside and enjoy the sun for a while.’

Those who already know Elstak, know him as a great ‘connector’; a vital cog in the assembly of artists, musicians, photographers and actors for creative projects. But also as an image maker, creator of ballpoint sketches, paintings and album covers. Instead of remaining in the background, Elstak recently decided to take main stage: with his latest solo show ‘Memories of Axel Foley’, he claims the exhibition walls at MC’s main hall and shows his own series of work, consisting of exuberant and expressive Basquiat-like paintings, inspired on pop culture from the 80’s and 90’s era. For this project Elstak asked 11 of his favorite producers to create a track inspired by his paintings. The tracks and paintings are featured in the very first mixin book ‘Maak Dingen Or Die Tryin’.

As we hang on the restaurant’s outside-couch, Elstak explains how he came to the series: ‘The title Axel Foley is from the movie ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ with Eddy Murphy. It’s one of my favorite movies. The movie stems from the 80’s and 90’s era, which is an era that formed me – I grew up during that time and there are a lot of things I identify myself with. So I started letting that era inspire me for this series.’ Elstak further analyzes how he lets aspects of popular culture come back in his work: ‘I loved, and still do by the way, listening to Michael Jackson for example. Inspired by his jacket, which was the coolest thing to have back then, I painted my son in a Michael Jackson-outfit and -pose.’

As my 45 minutes are almost up, I ask him to finish my sentence: ‘I wanna show the world that…’, ‘I make beautiful things’, he immediately answers. ‘No? Not the answer you were looking for?’, he states when I frown. Indeed, it wasn’t. I was looking for an aesthetic answer, an answer which would reveal the message behind his art. Ok, let me put it this way, what would his tumbler show, if he had to accumulate all the images he had collected, was my second final question. ‘I store up everything I like, that inspires me. I grew up in a Hip-Hop culture which is a sample culture, so I’m inspired by iconic figures, colors and everything beautiful. And besides that, art-making for me comes from within, so my emotions and expressions are added to the images too. If you put all that in a blender and make a smoothie out of it, you’ll get me: bumpy and messy surface, coarse and raw lines, blobs and dabs filled with color and life.’

Memories of Axel Foley will be on view until June 18, 2011. So I advise you to go have a look whilst the hallways of theatre MC are still adorned. And otherwise you can order the book here. For more info, visit: www.mconline.nl

Exhibition: Memories of Axel Foley, Brian Elstak

Address: Polonceaukade 5, 1014 DA Amsterdam

Date: March 26 through June 18, 2011