Jeff Koons brings artworks to Hong Kong

As you might expect from the world's most famous, most expensive, living artist, Jeff Koons knows a thing or two about being interviewed. No, he says, not in the quiet back room of the Pedder Building's Gagosian Gallery: he wants to sit amid the exhibition, his first major one in Asia. Two chairs are carried in and suitably placed for the conversation.

But first, a photo session. He stands in front of one of his seven Hulk Elvises, ready for his close-up. If you met Koons in his suit and tie on the street, you'd guess he was either a banker or a Mormon; he has the clean-cut, dental insistence of practised salesmen. Today, however, he's a little weary. He'll be 60 in January and although he's in great shape (all of it on display in Vanity Fair's July issue, for which Annie Leibovitz photographed him nude), he flew in from New York the previous day and he's concerned about what needs tweaking. The pale eyes dart around the room, the brow furrows; he's a perfectionist, assessing everything.

The photographer begins and so, instantly, does the performance. Unasked, he squares his shoulders, he flings out his arms, he makes two fists, he leans in with a wrap-around grin. And he morphs into The Incredible Artist: a cartoon figure worthy of Marvel who, with his animal sidekicks (rabbits, puppies, balloon dogs), has smashed up preconceived ideas about art by taking the banal and making it stratospherically expensive.

In this guise, he zips through a repertoire of poses, turning down suggestions ("That may be a little distracting," he says at one point, a curious concern in the circumstances) while remaining on Koons-control throughout. As with the Hulk Elvises, which resemble inflatables but are actually made of bronze, weigh at least 800kg each and cost Gagosian much money and effort to install, you think: is this for real?

Transforming back in a nanosecond, he comes over to be introduced. He makes genial small talk. His wife Justine Wheeler, he says, is British, via South Africa, but has Irish blood and they've been to Dublin a couple of times "to see Bono and Ali [Hewson, Bono's wife]". The eldest of their six children is called Sean. He's aged 13. The other five are Kurt, Blake, Eric, Scarlett and Mick ("like Mick Jagger"). He is, he says, very fond of children. "I love the biological side of life."