Jeff Koons was born on January 21, 1955 in York, Pennsylvania. Koons is an American Artist with a concentration on building sculptors. Koons is most recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and sculpting everyday objects. One of his more well known pieces, Balloon Dog is a sculpture made of stainless steel depicting a dog made of balloon with a mirror looking finish.

Koons received his education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as well as the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore. It was here where he refined his love for art and began working on ideas for how he would depict his artwork. Koons explains that he creates art for the feeling, and that is not only his individual feeling. Koons explains that the beauty in art is that it is not interpreted the same way by all of the audience. Art has a way of making different people feel different ways and that is why Koons creates art in the way that he does.

Some of the work of Koons has sold for substantial amounts of money. For example, Balloon Dog sold for $58.4 million in 2013 and $91.1 million for Rabbit in 2019. Critics of Koons feel that his work is cynical and self-merchandising because of the way they were depicted and how much they were sold for.