Joseph Ari Aloi AKA JK5

Book excerpt: INDIEFAB Book of the Year Awards -- 2014 Finalist The first monograph to celebrate the diverse and eclectic work of one of the true visionaries of the contemporary art world. Joseph Ari Aloi-aka JK5-is a compulsive artist for whom every free moment is an opportunity to create. Bringing together his work as a fine artist with the instincts and references that color his passions of tattoo and graffiti art, JK5 has an expansive, textured, and highly individual visual vernacular. Whether as a painter, illustrator, calligrapher, or designer, JK5 is preoccupied with the collision of personal and revelatory themes with profound pop-cultural iconography, resulting in a powerful and readily identifiable style. This creatively designed monograph features work that extends from paintings on canvas to plastic vinyl toys, from storyboards for animation films to collages and scratch cards, and from outlines for tattoo work to a vast collection of sketchbooks-each completed with such regularity that they serve as a kind of artist diary, recording his changing preoccupations and varying visual interests. Edited by the artist-with contributions from fellow artists Mike Giant and Kenzo Minami-and designed to reflect the varying and tactile nature of the work, this is an artist's book that will exist as a unique and collectible object in its own right as much as a record of the remarkable output of one of the most prolific voices in contemporary art.