Aphrodite Sculpture Detail (Photo By Gail)
In the two decades I’ve been writing this website, Jeff Koons is probably the living artist I’ve covered the most — and that’s because I genuinely love his work. I know he gets a lot of criticism, and not all of it is undeserved, but even when I have my own reservations, I still give him a pass. His work is unique, beautiful, monumental, and often very funny. I’m not about to apologize for the fact that he’s one of my two favorite living artists. So when he has a show in New York, I’m there — every time — ready to experience that particular spark of genius he brings.
Braving some truly unfriendly winter weather, I recently made my way to Gagosian Gallery to see The Porcelain Series, Koons’ latest exhibition. Any time I’m in the presence of his mirror-finished sculptures, I swoon a little, so this was not something I was going to miss. The show brings together new and recent sculptures alongside a selection of abstract paintings, all centered around his ongoing Porcelain Series.
Koons has always had a way of pulling from everywhere — pop culture, art history, mythology — and filtering it through his own highly polished lens. In this series, he looks to porcelain figurines from the eighteenth through early twentieth centuries, reimagining them at a monumental scale.
Kissing Lovers
Classical figures like Diana and Venus appear alongside animals and Kissing Lovers, all rendered in mirror-polished stainless steel and coated in luminous, translucent color. They feel at once familiar and completely transformed.
The Three Graces
And then there’s the craftsmanship. Say what you will about Koons —and people do — but the level of precision behind these works is undeniable. Each sculpture goes through an incredibly complex process involving digital modeling, engineering, fabrication, painting, and polishing before it ever reaches the gallery floor. I happen to know an artist who works in Koons’s studio, and he put it best:
“the sculptures are impressive and definitely the highlight of the exhibit. Koons is an easy target, justifiably or not , but regardless of what you think of the aesthetic of the work itself, you’ve got to respect the level of craft, the attention to detail and precision that goes into them in every stage of the process. No one’s ever done silver leafing that complicated and at that scale before. Years of engineering went into to figuring that out, and it was cool to be a part of that process.”
Fox With Bird
What makes these pieces so compelling in person is that signature mirrored surface. They don’t just sit there — they pull you in. You see yourself reflected back, becoming part of the work, folded into this strange and beautiful collision of past and present. Koons has always been interested in that exchange between object and viewer, and here it feels especially pronounced.
Gagosian Gallery Installation View
The paintings, part of the same Porcelain Series, take a different approach but follow a similarly layered logic. Each begins with a naturalistic scene—waves, forests, clouds — over which Koons adds bold, gestural brushstrokes. Then comes a layer of aluminum leaf, applied using traditional techniques, embedding imagery drawn from Renaissance and Counter-Reformation prints. Finally, he returns to the surface with more painterly gestures, building up a composition that’s dense, reflective, and deliberately complex.
I’ll admit, the paintings don’t grab me in quite the same way as the sculptures—but the longer I spend with them, the more I start to understand what he’s after. As my studio insider friend told me:
“It’s weird to see the paintings finished and out in the world after 5 years in the studio, but they were a lot of fun to work on. It’s easy to dismiss the paintings but I think a lot of people’s minds could be changed just by learning everything that goes into making them.”
Art history plays a major role here, too. Koons incorporates imagery from artists like Agostino Carracci, Marcantonio Raimondi, and Johann Sadeler, pulling from mythological scenes that have already been reinterpreted across centuries. His interest seems to lie in that continuity — how images evolve, repeat, and take on new meaning over time.
Koons himself puts it this way: “The Porcelain series is in dialogue with art from ancient times through history to this moment; the belief in humanity and civilization through our possibility to transcend is embedded within.”
Stag and Dog
It’s a shame I didn’t get this posted in time for you to catch the show in person — it closed at the end of February — but hopefully you can experience a bit of it here. And if it travels, or if you ever find yourself in front of one of these works, take the time to really look. Koons’s art always has something to say — you just have to be willing to meet it halfway.