Jeff Koons was born in York, Pennsylvania 1955. He received a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1976. He had his first solo exhibition in 1980 but has been showcased internationally and holds three spots in the top-ten list of most expensive artwork by living artists. He is most known visually by his larger-than-life colorful, reflective balloon animal depictions. Labeled in the art community as a Neo-pop or post-pop artist, Koons dislikes labels and the idea of his artwork having hidden meanings and wants the view to make their own judgement based on first glance perceptions. 

His notable works are Rabbit (1986) which in May 2019 sold for $91.1 million and became the record holder for most expensive artwork by living artists, followed by Balloon Dog (Orange) (1994-2000) one of a five-part series, sold for $58.4 million in November 2013, and then Hanging Heart (Magenta/Gold) (1994-2006) which sold for $23.6 million in November of 2007.

My personal favorite is a piece of Koon’s titled Puppy (1992), a standalone piece that stands permanently installed at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, in Bilbao Spain, made of stainless steel, wood, soil, mesh, an internal irrigation system, and of course living, blooming flowers.

My favorite couple of sculptures of his are in a series called “Antiquity” and convey traditional figures in that “neo-pop” way of bright colors and reflective material. 

The reason I chose Jeff Koons is my love for his living sculpture Puppy, and it’s wild nature. No artist can predict how nature is going to grown or change, flourish or die, which makes the essence of the piece uncontrollable beyond the boundaries of the very skeleton of the sculpture. My reasoning behind the selections of statues from the Antiquity series shows the diversity of his sculptures, living flowers incorporated often, from solid granite to shiny metallic figures.