JEFFREY (JEFF) LYNN KOONS was born in York, Pennsylvania, in 1955. He studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, earning a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1976. He lives and works in New York City and York, PA, his birthplace.

Since his first solo exhibition in 1980, Jeff’s work has been featured in major galleries and institutions worldwide. Notable exhibitions include a major retrospective organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2014 and titled "Jeff Koons: A Retrospective", which later, in 2015, traveled to the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Guggenheim Bilbao. More recent exhibitions include "Shine" at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, "Jeff Koons: Lost in America" at QM Gallery ALRIWAQ in Doha, and "Jeff Koons: Apollo" at the Slaughterhouse, a DESTE Foundation Project Space in Hydra, Greece. His piece "Dugong" (2020-2022), a large-scale inflatable over 32 meters long and 24 meters high, was unveiled on November 1, 2023, along the Corniche in Al Masrah Park, Doha, Qatar.

Koons is renowned for his iconic sculptures "Rabbit" and "Balloon Dog," as well as the monumental floral sculpture "Puppy" (1992), exhibited at Rockefeller Center and permanently installed at the Guggenheim Bilbao. Another floral sculpture, "Split-Rocker" (2000), which has been displayed at the Papal Palace in Avignon, Château de Versailles, and Fondation Beyeler in Basel, was on view at Rockefeller Center in 2014.

Jeff has received numerous awards and honors for his cultural contributions. He has been awarded honorary degrees from The Corcoran in Washington, D.C. (2002), the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2008), and York College of Pennsylvania (2017). He received the Governor’s Awards for the Arts "Distinguished Arts Award" from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, was promoted to Officier de la Légion d'Honneur by President Jacques Chirac, and was honored with the State Department’s Medal of Arts by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for his outstanding commitment to the Art in Embassies Program and international cultural exchange. Additionally, he was presented with the U.S. Consulate General’s Award for Cultural Diplomacy in Florence by Consul General Ragini Gupta. In 2017, he became the first Artist-in-Residence at Columbia University’s Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. He was appointed an Honorary Member of the University of Oxford's Edgar Wind Society for Outstanding Contribution to Visual Culture.

Critics are quite divided in their views of Koons’s work. Some view it as pioneering and important, while others dismiss his work as kitsch and based on cynical self-merchandising.

The selection we present in The Pasticheur is copyrighted to Jeff Koons, and we reproduce it with his authorization.

More of Jeff’s work may be appreciated on his website.