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In 1995, a younger South African artist named Justine Wheeler got here to New York on trip. Thirty years later, she lastly has her first solo present, “Justine Koons: Myth” at Salon 94 on the Higher East Facet, that includes glazed ceramics impressed by motherhood, mythology, and the feminine physique.
Getting right here has been an extended and sudden journey, set in movement by an opportunity assembly with the artist Jeff Koons. The 2 fell in love, and, for inexperienced card functions, he employed her to work in her studio. Six youngsters later, Justine Koons has lastly emerged from the cocoon of motherhood, prepared to indicate her work to the world.
The primary piece Koons confirmed me once I went to go to the present the morning earlier than the opening was one in every of her Venus sculptures, impressed by the idealized feminine types of antiquity, glazed in a shiny, Yves Klein-like blue.
Koons had adorned her limbless, headless torsos with what I at first assumed was flowers and jewellery. However as I obtained nearer, I noticed she was really coated with pacifiers and Lego collectible figurines, goldfish, lollipops and various sweets, the detritus of childhood clinging to her like so many sticky fingers.
Justine Koons, Venus (2024). Photograph courtesy of the artist and Salon 94©Justine Koons
“I needed to reinterpret the Venus as a mom and a spouse and an artist,” Koons advised me. “You may have all this accrued expertise that will get placed on you as a mother, and this superb type is type of exhausting to make out.”
This resonated with me. As she defined the work, I reached into my pocket to indicate Koons my 14-month-old son’s pacifier. I had unclipped it as we entered the room, so it wouldn’t drag on the ground as he crawled across the gallery.
However the place I’m nonetheless in the beginning of my motherhood journey, Koons is sort of 1 / 4 century in, her brood now ranging in age from 13 to 24. Understandably, her personal artwork obtained considerably pushed to the again burner when the kids have been younger, though she by no means stopped making it. However the physique of labor now on view began in 2015, when Koons enrolled in ceramics class on the 92nd Street Y on the Higher East Facet.
“I used to be working via postpartum despair and simply coping with what it means to be to your self and have your personal identification inside this very massive household of people that have totally different wants that take away out of your time to seek out that inventive success,” Koons stated.
Justine Koons, Minotaur (2024). Photograph by Elisabeth Bernstein, courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, New York, ©Justine Koons.
At her husband’s studio, she had led the sculpture division, however her personal work had beforehand targeted on portray. The brand new course proved liberating. Koons discovered that throwing herself into her new ceramics follow not solely allowed her to course of her emotions about motherhood, however to truly be a greater mom to her youngest at at time when she was struggling.
“I may very well be a extra fulfilling mother to him,” she defined.
Koons’s Venuses mirror that evolution, the self being step by step consumed by motherhood solely to emerged remodeled into a brand new magnificence.
Justine Koons, Venus (Wrapped) (2024), element. Photograph courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, New York, ©Justine Koons.
In Venus (Wrapped), the physique is nearly fully obscured by all of the objects which have accrued on the floor—together with slices of pie and richly frosted muffins that allude to the artist’s considerations about gaining weight, in addition to the selfmade birthday muffins she bakes for the kids. (Koons’s prowess with the piping bag means it now doubles as a sculpting instrument.)
However within the work Veil, these ins and outs have been remodeled right into a garment wrapping partway across the torso. It’s as if this girl has reclaimed her identification by refashioning the trimmings of motherhood into one thing much more fabulous that enhances her pure magnificence.
Justine Koons, Veil (2025). Photograph courtesy of the artist and Salon 94©Justine Koons
The Venus sculptures “put on their motherhood and sexuality like warriors,” Salon 94 proprietor Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn advised me.
For years, Koons shied away from the thought of exhibiting her work. A decade in the past, when talking with Harper’s Bazaar a couple of jewellery line she was launching, Koons stated she couldn’t show her paintings as a result of “Jeff has a really huge shadow.”
She spoke of that shadow with me as nicely. However Greenberg Rohatyn, along with her recognized monitor document for fostering the careers of ladies artists and embracing feminist work, made Koons comfy with the thought of stepping out on her personal.
And Jeff—the world’s costliest dwelling artist—is keen to provide his spouse her second within the highlight. “While you are available and also you see the exhibition, you are feeling the wow,” he advised me on the post-opening dinner, the place I discovered him deep in dialog with Metropolitan Museum of Artwork director Max Hollein. “Justine’s work could be very highly effective.”
“Justine Koons: Delusion” at Salon 94, New York. Photograph by Elisabeth Bernstein, courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, New York, ©Justine Koons.
The social gathering, which was additionally celebrating solo reveals for Deborah Kass and Lina Iris Viktor, was at Greenberg Rohatyn’s townhouse, only a few blocks from the gallery. I walked over with Sotheby’s superb arts chairman Amy Cappellazzo.
“I’m happy with Justine,” she advised me. “She supported him and raised all these rattling children. I’m so blissful she has her personal present.”
From these in attendance, it was clear that Koons had endeared herself to many within the artwork world over the past three a long time. Julian Schnabel and his spouse Louise Kugelberg put in an look. I additionally noticed Performa director Roselee Goldberg and curator and husband and spouse duo Massimiliano Gioni, of the New Museum, and Celilia Alemani, of the Excessive Line. However the artwork world A-listers have been additionally balanced out by different ceramics college students from the 92Y, and Koons’s many mates.
And the Koons clan was out in full power, naturally, with all six children of the couple’s youngsters in attendance. On the house’s second flooring, Marilyn Minter, a longtime Salon 94 artist, chatted warmly with the 2 oldest Koons sons and a few of their mates.
Justine Koons, Leda (Supine) 2024–25. Photograph courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, New York, ©Justine Koons.
It’s a household that grew up with artwork on the coronary heart of on a regular basis life. Each Jeff and Justine spoke to me how a lot they take pleasure in seeing artwork and making it the main focus of their lives even outdoors the studio.
“I assume our youngsters get irritated that every one we need to do is go to museums, however that’s the plight of being an artist’s child,” Koons stated.
The youngsters are happy with her, she added, however she isn’t positive they take her 100% critically but. “There’s an actual distinction between extremely perceived Jeff’s artwork making and my artwork making,” she stated. “When it comes to a job, Jeff has an actual job, however I don’t.”
However with works priced at $18,000 to $36,000, (plus a bronze work for $85,000), the Koons children may need to begin to reassess that place.
“Collectors have responded to her humor, private story, and cautious hand,” Greenberg Rohatyn stated.
Justine Koons, Cake (Rosette), 2025. Photograph courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, New York, ©Justine Koons.
Different sculptures within the present depict scenes from fantasy, like Zeus taking the type of a swan to seduce the Spartan queen. However in Leda (Supine), Koons imagines a scene with extra feminine empowerment, the swan virtually decreased to a intercourse toy that she makes use of to pleasure herself.
And a pair of Nefertiti-like busts in profile flank the doorway to the present, every balancing a big, decoratively frosted cake atop their head like an edible basket. Koons thinks of the muffins as large thought bubbles, representing the burden of her topics’ ideas. (There’s additionally a nod to Jeff Koons’s repeated use of the ribbon, with a neatly piped bow crowning one of many muffins.)
Justine Koons, Torso (Twist) 2024. Photograph courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, New York, ©Justine Koons.
Koons has additionally tackled the male type, turning once more to antiquity for inspiration, with extra idealized torsos in the identical daring shade of blue. However whereas every physique cuts off proper above the phallus, Koons has painted lusty intercourse scenes, expertly copied from historical pottery, throughout their clean pores and skin.
There’s additionally Vacuum Venus, the place the tube of the vacuum cleaner entangles the feminine torso like a boa constrictor strangling its prey. Seeing it, I couldn’t assist relate to how I really feel like I’m being swallowed by my own residence, which I discover inconceivable to maintain clear.
Justine Koons, Vacuum Venus (2025). Photograph courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, New York, ©Justine Koons.
“That is probably the most express reference to Jeff,” Koons admitted—he got here to fame, in fact, for his sequence “The New,” of mounted vacuum cleaners in illuminated Perspex containers, exhibited on the New Museum in 1980. However her use of the home equipment is sure up not in advertising and consumerism, however within the weight of ladies’s home duties.
It’s a weight that Koons has been bearing for years. Now, it could appear she’s obtained the stability good.
“Justine Koons: Delusion” is on view at Salon 94, 3 East 89th Avenue, New York, New York, February 19–March 29, 2025.
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