Jeff Koons @ Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

It’s hard to decide if Jeff Koons is laughing with us, at us, or all the way to the bank. Despite his work comprising mainly of colourful kitsch, he’s one of the world’s most commercially successful artists.

His current show at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art includes work ranging from 1980 to 2003, giving a comprehensive overview of the artist’s career, although for Koons fans, the omission of the highly reflective Balloon Dog and the floral Puppy might be something of a disappointment.

Perhaps the most interesting works on show are Koons’ earlier works. From The New Series, they are made using found objects. Vacuum cleaners and box-fresh basketballs encased in Perspex boxes, they reference Duchamp’s readymades and raise issues of American consumerism and social mobility.

Instantly recognisable is the outsized sculpture Bear and Policeman, a perfectly replicated, if giant-sized version, of a familiar piece of ornamental tat that asks: why do we fill our houses with this stuff?

The artist’s knowing banality is still key to his work. The hyper-real, aluminium cast Caterpillar Chains is an imitation of a child’s inflatable toy, suspended, or trapped, by bright red chains. It’s the most recent work on show, made in 2003, and it’s hard not to reach out and touch the metal, so convincingly does it replicate the rubber.

Famously, Made in Heaven is one of Koons’ more pornographic series. This show avoids his more overtly sexual works, instead showing the more anodyne Bourgeois Bust. A pristine, sparkling bust of Koons and his ex-porn star, ex-MP, ex-wife Ilona Staller stands alongside an ironic billboard-sized poster showing Staller lying seductively in lingerie under a naked Koons.

Surprisingly entrancing is Koons’ Easyfun series. Made of bright coloured mirror, the huge, at first seemingly abstract, pieces portray the outlines of various cartoon animals and sum up Koons’ work: superficial yet strangely appealing, with hidden depths of social commentary.