6 tonight, Teaneck

RENAISSANCE ARTIST

When Kelly Ripa wanted her husband's name inked on her wrist, she waited five months to go under the needle of celebrated tattoo artist Joseph Ari Aloi, aka JK5. Aloi's body of work doesn't stop at ink on skin. He straddles multiple worlds: fine and underground art, pop culture, fashion and music. This month, the Brooklyn-based artist debuts a collection of scratchboard pieces in a show titled "GET lost in SMART space" at the Blast Gallery.

TELL ME MORE: You may remember scratchboards from elementary school art class — boards covered in a black coating that you etch away with a tool to create a design. Aloi received a bundle of these as a Christmas gift from a relative, and later turned the materials into 100 drawings — 30 of which will be on display at the Teaneck show, whose title plays on the classic television shows "Get Smart" and "Lost in Space." "I'm playing on pop culture and a lot of language, with dimensions and layers and meanings and acronyms," said Aloi. "Basically it's getting lost in smart spaces, creating a black empty something from nothing."

Aloi's fascination with symbols and language comes through in these pieces, as he plays with modern icons from Elmo to McDonald's golden arches. The late fashion designer Alexander McQueen was also an inspiration, he said. Aloi's past collaborations span various media — designing a limited-edition watch for Barneys/Timex, creating a series of toys called Flowbots and consulting on multimedia projects with a production company founded by Heath Ledger, We Are the Masses.

QUOTE: "A lot of the work that I create is an assimilation of my own personal autobiography and subconscious imagery. These interact and create a discourse within the picture plane based on all the elements coming together." — Joseph Ari Aloi in Complex magazine

DETAILS: Opening night 6 to 9 p.m.; exhibit runs through Oct. 29. Blast Gallery, 445a Cedar Lane. 201-530-05666 or blastgallery.com. For more, see jk5nyc.com.