{"id":250017,"date":"2026-01-24T19:53:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T19:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/250017\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T19:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T19:53:16","slug":"jeff-koonss-reflective-sculptures-mirror-the-one-percent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/250017\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Koons\u2019s Reflective Sculptures Mirror the One Percent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Art Review<\/a><\/p>\n

When I picture where Koons\u2019s sculptures belong, I think about Trump\u2019s plan for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, and the art collectors who funded it.<\/p>\n


\n \"John
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

John Yau<\/a><\/p>\n

\n January 23, 2026
\n \u2014 4 min read\n <\/p>\n

\"Jeff
\n A visitor snapping a photo of Jeff Koons, “Kissing Lovers” (2016\u201325) at Gagosian Gallery in New York (photo Hakim Bishara\/Hyperallergic) <\/p>\n

Jeff Koons is a hit-or-miss artist whose sculptures always give viewers something to talk about.\u00a0The same isn\u2019t true of his paintings, none of which have ever become memorable because there is nothing particularly arresting about them. This doesn\u2019t mean that painting is dead, just that his are. <\/p>\n

A lot of the discourse around his sculptures gets unnecessarily heated, with (often White) critics arguing over whether or not they critique capitalism or celebrate consumerism, which seems beside the point when fabricating one of his \u201cBalloon Dogs\u201d costs more money than the majority of Americans make in a year. Then there are the hilarious narratives circling his work, such as yet-to-be-built\u2019s deadpan, tongue-in-cheek assertion in a 2020 New Yorker article<\/a> that Koons is \u201ca very light-skinned Black guy passing for white,\u201d and that the floating basketballs in his Equilibrium series are \u201ctesticles, connoting everything from castration to Black sexual prowess.\u201d\u00a0With Koons\u2019s sculptures, it is hard not to think that his art exists in one world and the writing about it in another.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was with this split in mind that I visited his latest exhibition, Jeff Koons: Porcelain Series<\/a> at Gagosian Gallery. I knew from the gallery press release that one of my experiences would be seeing myself both reflected and distorted in the mirror-polished stainless steel surface with a transparent color coating. The sculptures depict curvaceous figures, such as \u201cAphrodite\u201d (2016\u201321), \u201cThree Graces\u201d (2016\u201322), and \u201cKissing Lovers\u201d (2016\u201325). The press release notes: \u201cThe objects\u2019 surfaces fuse their sensorial allure with symbolic potential. The finish affirms the viewer, making them a participant in the artwork and highlighting the works\u2019 stylistic and conceptual interplay of past, present, and future.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"Installation view of Jeff Koons: Porcelain Series at Gagosian (\u00a9 Jeff Koons, photo Maris Hutchinson, courtesy Gagosian)<\/p>\n

There is something mildly interesting about seeing a distorted, miniaturized version of yourself reflected in a shiny surface that you realize is a shapely arm or a furless fox. It is like looking into a funhouse mirror at a carnival or standing in front of Anish Kapoor\u2019s bean-shaped \u201cCloud Gate\u201d in Chicago\u2019s Millennium Park and taking a selfie. Once is enough, though. A stainless steel hubcap will distort you if that is your thing, but seeing yourself this way is apt to make you forget what you are looking at, as everything falls away, so its uncanny effects are fleeting.<\/p>\n

We also learn that his grandparents had porcelain figures. In an interview<\/a> with Joachim Pissaro that appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, he tells Pissaro that the inspiration for many of his sculptures are original 18th-century Meissen porcelains, which are rare collectibles for the \u00fcber wealthy. I was not surprised to hear him say:\u00a0<\/p>\n

When I was a kid, I would play with them and I would be so excited. It was titillation, really. And the excitement that comes from this, that excitement is equal to any experience anybody else could have, even looking at a Michelangelo. You can\u2019t really define how one is of more value, because as a young child you don\u2019t know those hierarchies, but you do feel excitement, stimulation.\"\"“We also learn that [Koons’s] grandparents had porcelain figures.” (photo Hakim Bishara\/Hyperallergic)<\/p>\n

Koons\u2019s belief that his childlike excitement is equal to anybody else\u2019s, even when looking at a Michelangelo, because hierarchies aren\u2019t yet learned, speaks to his utter lack of self-reflection. This is another clich\u00e9 example of universalist thinking, in presuming insight into the emotions and hierarchies of others. This still persists, especially if you are a White American.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the many points about which Koons opines when analyzing his balloons is how these works are a model of the individual:<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always liked the dialogue of internal being, and its exchange with the external world. And if we think about the skin as a kind of membrane, or interface \u2014 that\u2019s something my balloon works emphasize, that interface between the interior and the exterior.\u00a0\"\"Jeff Koons, “Nymph, Pluto, and Satyr” (2018\u201325), oil on canvas with aluminum leaf (\u00a9 Jeff Koons, photo Maris Hutchinson, courtesy Gagosian)<\/p>\n

Since the works he\u2019s referring to have a sensitive, reflective, metallic skin and a hollow body (it is literally empty inside), it seems to me that this shiny, distorting surface, which we also find in the recent porcelain works, is not mirroring the selfie-takers as much as those who identify with Koons\u2019s aesthetics, and believe his work is an important contribution to art history and culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When I try to picture where Koons\u2019s sculptures belong and to and about whom they are speaking, I think about President Trump\u2019s plan for a gaudy 90,000-square-foot ballroom for 1,000 guests, which was funded by private donations. The donors, many of whom are major art collectors, contributed millions to Trump\u2019s compulsion to spend other people\u2019s money for his causes. Some of the collectors include Warren Stephens, Ken Griffin, Paul Singer, Larry Fink, Charles and Helen Schwab, and John H. Tyson, who is also chairman of the board at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. They and other billionaires will be invited to the ballroom once it is completed; Koons\u2019s sculptures would look right at home in it. Perhaps one of these philanthropists will buy one of the three editions of \u201cAphrodites\u201d for the lobby of a yet-to-be-built five-star hotel in another “everybody wins\u201d gentrification scheme. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Installation view of “Stag and Dog” (2016\u201324) in Jeff Koons: Porcelain Series at Gagosian (\u00a9 Jeff Koons, photo Maris Hutchinson, courtesy Gagosian)<\/p>\n

Jeff Koons: Porcelain Series<\/a> continues at Gagosian (541 West 24th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan) through February 28. The exhibition was organized by the gallery.<\/p>\n

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