Jeff Koons (b. 1955, York, Pennsylvania) is one of the most influential and controversial artists of our time, known for his bold, large-scale sculptures and glossy, photorealistic paintings that reflect on contemporary culture, consumerism, and the art historical canon. Emerging in the 1980s, Koons became a key figure in the dialogue around art and spectacle in a media-saturated world. With a stated aim to "communicate with the masses," his work draws on everyday objects, popular culture, and classical imagery, elevating the banal to the monumental.

Koons studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, receiving his BFA in 1976. His first solo exhibition was in 1980, and since then, his practice has evolved from assemblages of found objects to iconic sculptures like Balloon Dog and Puppy, towering figures rendered in polished stainless steel or flowering topiary. Through series such as Banality, Celebration, Popeye, and Gazing Ball, Koons reinterprets familiar images and kitsch objects with dazzling surfaces, often provoking dialogue about taste, value, and authenticity.

His work often references the readymade tradition of Marcel Duchamp, merging mass-produced aesthetics with deeply personal and metaphysical themes. Whether through inflatable cartoon characters, hyperrealistic sculptures, or mirrored glass orbs, Koons explores ideas of transcendence, sexuality, innocence, and self-reflection.

Koons has exhibited globally, with major retrospectives at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Centre Pompidou, Guggenheim Bilbao, and Palazzo Strozzi, among others. His work is held in numerous prestigious public collections, including MoMA, Tate, and the Broad. He lives and works in New York.

“ It’s basically the medium that defines people’s perceptions of the world, of life itself, how to interact with others. The media defines reality. „

—Jeff Koons