Jakab Elek paints almost exclusively with oil, thickly, modeling with grotesque pleasure his imaginary figures, sometimes even with painting-knife, to which he sticks up topics taken from his environment, inspired by the “combine-painting”-influence. He thinks exclusively in a figurative way, in the human body he seeks for the gestures, symbols, signs, schemes– and finds them in the stressed eyes, in the different parts of the body and in the hands, which have a remarkable inclination for expressivity.

He can depict a theme in several variations and his exuberance of ideas also allows him to think in cycles of 10-15 fragments. A very good example for this way of composing in cycles can be mentioned that series of 12 fragments, which for the artist are meant to be the 12 most important spiritual and physical needs (exhibited in the Hungarian Opera House from Cluj in the year 2000).