Jeff Koons

Born in York, Pennsylvania, Jeff Koons studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before moving to New York in the late 1970s, where he initially worked as a Wall Street commodities broker. He rose to prominence in the mid-1980s as part of a generation exploring the meaning of art and spectacle in a media-saturated era. Known for monumental sculptures that blur the line between high art and mass culture — mirror-polished stainless steel balloon animals, porcelain figurines, and flowering topiary — Koons has become one of the most commercially successful and polarizing artists alive. His work interrogates taste, value, and desire with an unapologetic embrace of the banal made sublime. Major permanent installations include Puppy (1992) at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Bouquet of Tulips (2019) near the Petit Palais in Paris. Currently represented by Gagosian after returning from Pace Gallery in 2025.