Claims

As the studio produced work, it began to heavily systematize the mixing and application of paint so that all assistants' hands became unified in their execution—eliminating differences in color or application from one assistant to another.

Koons' famous Balloon Dog sculpture was not manufactured in Koons' New York studio but by Carlson and Co (a specialist fabricator in San Fernando, California) between 1994 and 2000, requiring old-fashioned Greek and Roman-era measurement techniques to scale the small original balloon model into a large stainless steel sculpture.

Koons' paintings, despite their size and detail and sometimes photorealistic rendering, take 9 to 12 months to complete—an absurdly long time for a team, suggesting complex processes beyond standard painting techniques.

Koons' studio uses large custom-built wooden platforms with chairs positioned to allow multiple assistants to access different parts of a large canvas simultaneously, with structures doubling as storage for equipment and materials, representing a thoughtful ergonomic design not commonly seen in other creative spaces.

Koons' sculpture 'Pink Ballerina,' an 8-foot-tall marble replica of a small $150 porcelain ballerina his grandmother owned, required 33,000 hours of hand work and polishing according to the head of Koons' hand finishing department, Ayama Ioma.

Beyond hand work, Pink Ballerina also required thousands of hours to scan the small original model and translate those details into instructions for machines to carve the actual large sculpture.

Creating smooth contours for sculptures like Balloon Dog is extremely challenging because the shapes are very simple and suggestive, meaning any form imperfection is highly visible—requiring 60 parts to be welded to produce the round limbs and torso.

Carlson and Co achieved the mirror polish finish on Balloon Dog in bright colors like magenta and blue through a multi-stage process involving adhesive application followed by automobile-type paint, but the exact techniques remain proprietary and undisclosed.

Despite employing large studios, Koons' actual output of finished paintings is quite low: approximately 172 paintings over his career (mostly between 1995 and 2017), averaging 7-8 paintings per year, compared to Andy Warhol's 10,000 works over his lifetime (approximately 200 paintings per year).