Pace Announces Exclusive Worldwide Representation of Jeff Koons

New York – Marc Glimcher, CEO and President of Pace Gallery, announced this week that the gallery will begin representing Jeff Koons exclusively worldwide. Jeff Koons is among the world’s most influential and iconoclastic living artists. Koons has become internationally renowned for his sculptures and paintings that explore meaning in our media-saturated age. Marrying rigorous conceptualism with commercial aesthetics, and spectacular displays with an unparalleled degree of technical finesse, Koons has repeatedly tested the limits of both fabrication and art history, simultaneously redefining Minimalism and Pop Art. His Inflatables, which apply Duchamp’s concept of the “readymade” to objects, rendered in stainless steel and often enlarged to monumental scale, have become emblems of our contemporary era. The mirrored finishes of sculptures such as Rabbit(1986) and Balloon Dog (1994–2000), as well as the more recent Gazing Ball series (2012–21), create opportunities for affirmation through literal self-reflection. These shiny, brightly colored surfaces extend to Koons’s photorealistic paintings, their fusion of pop and art historical references achieving his stated aim to “communicate with the masses.” Transcending time and geography, high and low culture, Koons’s art imparts a visual experience of the sublime.

Pace has always engaged with artists who, like Koons, possess original vision, from twentieth-century greats who comprise the gallery’s foundational program such as Calder, Agnes Martin, and Mark Rothko, to contemporary luminaries Sam Gilliam, David Hockney, Maya Lin, Adam Pendleton, James Turrell, and Yoshitomo Nara, who—similarly to Koons—uses imagery from pop culture to reflect on the individual’s sense of self and place in the broader cultural narrative. Koons’s oeuvre also expands on the legacy of Pace artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, whose playful and colossal sculptures are created from a visual lexicon drawn from everyday life.

Marc Glimcher comments: “Jeff Koons’s contribution needs no introduction. Jeff changed the way we see the world around us and the way we understand our culture and ourselves. He perceived a cultural shift decades before any of us knew it was underway by propelling through the barrier of elitism that was ringfencing the art world. We are excited to support Jeff by exploring his potential together in new ways, and we are proud and privileged to represent him at Pace Gallery.”