A new exhibition by Stefan Glerum; 'From the top drawer' You've seen his work before, if you've been in the Amsterdam nightlife. Having designed posters for numerous parties of Rednose Distrikt and most recently the Dog Day Disco parties at Paradiso. Stefan Glerum (1983), a born Amsterdammer, has been closely involved with the music scene, where he is able to let his imagination run wild. Before starting his study at the St Joost Academy in Breda, where he studied Illustration, Stefan enjoyed an internship at Joost Swarte (A Dutch designer and cartoonist). Now Stefan's illustrations are in high demand, and his exhibition 'From the top drawer' shows his best works from the last two years, topped off with new work made especially for this exhibition. YOUR:OWN sat down with Stefan to talk more about his work, his methods and his obsession with British mustaches. You've been getting quite some recognition trough your music based illustrations. What is it that makes your work fit so well with music related themes? Music is very important to me. When I went to art school, I basically wanted to design record covers. There always was something magical about them. Later I realized that illustrating for music is different from illustrating for let's say articles or book covers. It's not that defined, it's more about atmosphere rather than words. When I get an article to illustrate my thought process is pretty much blocked. I can't find any ways to take the subject matter and place into my world. With music however I can let my imagination run wild, make strange connections, associations. You don't have to tell a specific story, you just have to get the vibe right. Or get it totally wrong, that's fun too. So your radio works around the clock when you are working? I like to listen to music when I draw, but I also like to watch movies and TV shows as well when I draw. Mostly WWII movies or series. I'm not really watching, but when i'm drawing a line it's nice to look up and catch a glimpse of an olive green uniform or a Spitfire. Or a British mustache. The first work I had seen from you were flyers and posters designed for Rednose Distrikt. How did this connection come about? About two years ago I moved back to Amsterdam. I had been studying and living in Breda for four years and didn't have any real connections work wise in Amsterdam. So one night at a club I just walked up to Steven de Peven (from Rednose) and told him i was an illustrator and gave him my card. We chatted a bit about absurdist Belgian comics, Joost Swarte and other stuff. Shortly thereafter i got an email from him saying he really liked my work and asked if i could do a flyer for a party. That flyer is still one of my favorite pieces. When you do something for Rednose you can do pretty much anything you want. If it's absurdist or politically incorrect, that's more or less considered as a plus by them. How does your work come about, do you sketch first, then draw, ink, and colour? When I have a good idea I start sketching with pencil. Sometimes I make scaled down rough sketches before I do my final drawing, but often I'll start immediately on the final. I use rulers and a compass and straightedge to map out shapes. Some stuff I do freehand, but most of the shapes I want to draw super tight, especially the typography. My drawing usually gets a big mess of lines and shapes before I've finished the entire sketch, so I start inking some lines. I use a dip pen and indian ink for this. I use this technique because you can't really 'draw' with it. It's more like following your lines carefully with ink. Therefore you're lines are getting really controlled and have equal thickness. Also indian ink is waterproof and sits on top of your paper and it's super black. The dipping pen also gives a certain vibrance to your lines you couldn't achieve with another kind of pen. Your putting in a lot of work there. Most important is for me that my stuff always looks handmade and has life to it. I usually do colors in Photoshop and use swatches of ecoline I previously scanned in to get a paper feeling and a gradient in my colors. When I have the time I color my piece by hand with ecoline, but it's the most horrible substance to color with without getting stripes because it dries super quickly. When it does dry out evenly it looks like it's printed and beats any marker or water based paint. I recently started working with gouache, but that's still in a development phase. How would you describe your own style and influences? Well, my style is influenced by a lot of stuff. I guess that's kind of what defines my style. It begins with early 20th century Futurism and especially the commercial illustration jobs those artists did on the side. In the sixties and seventies those art deco shapes came back in typography and design, but they got this 'cult' vibe going. I like the way design and illustration from that period never really sits easy with you. Like the illustrations of Heinz Edelmann. But then my work is somewhat sweeter and more easy on the eyes. It has more Joost Swarte and Hergé in it and it has a more model kit instruction booklet / building bricks experience for me. Top that with contemporary heroes like Chris Ware, Parra and Andy Rementer and I guess we've got it. But how would you explain that to your grandmother, who probably never heard any of those names? You will like the looks of it, but you'll probably can't read a word. More information on Stefan Glerum; www.stefanglerum.com Official opening: Friday 4th of June YOUR:OWN Gallery Oude Waal 35 18:00/20.30

Agenda: 26/03: Gijs Kast (NL) 09/04: The Things We Are (NL) 23/04: Lasse Netterstrom (DK) 06/05: Ed Templeton (USA) 21/05: Panik (UK) 04/06: Stefan Glerum (NL) 18/06: Lennard Schuurmans (NL) 02/07: Lil' Shy (FR) 16/07: Joe Holbrook (UK)            (closing exhibition) Contact: YOUR:OWN Oude Waal 35 1011 CC Amsterdam info@your-own.nl Opening times: Monday - friday 10.00 -18.00