Sotheby's

Growing up in Ethiopia in the 1970s, Jomo Tariku was always surrounded by beautiful things. His father—a US-educated colonel in the Ethiopian army, designated the first military attaché to Kenya—was a consummate collector of glassware, furniture, rugs and objets d'art, acquired on his travels within Africa and beyond. “I believe that left a lasting impression on me and what I do now for a living,” says the Nairobi-born, Virginia-based industrial designer. At the behest of his father (who wanted to keep his two young sons out of trouble), a young Tariku did a summer apprenticeship programme at a local furniture builder in Addis Ababa before moving to the United States in 1987 to pursue a degree in industrial design at the University of Kansas. It was there, while he was completing his thesis on contemporary African furniture, that his design practice was born. And yet, it would take another thirty years for the world to truly sit up and take notice.

Growing up in Ethiopia in the 1970s, Jomo Tariku was always surrounded by beautiful things. His father—a US-educated colonel in the Ethiopian army, designated the first military attaché to Kenya—collected glassware, furniture, rugs, and objets d’art, acquired on his travels in Africa and beyond. “I believe that left a lasting impression on me and what I do now for a living,” says the industrial designer, who was born in Nairobi and is now based in Virginia. At the behest of his father (who wanted to keep his two sons out of trouble), Tariku did a summer apprenticeship with a local furniture builder in Addis Ababa before moving to the US in 1987 to pursue a degree in industrial design at the University of Kansas. While he was completing his thesis on contemporary African furniture, he began developing his own design practice. But it took 30 years for the world to take notice.

For collectors of modern and contemporary art, this December holds the promise of more than just seasonal festivities. Rounding out a successful and spectacular year, Modern and Contemporary Auction – slated for 13 December – brings a bespoke line-up of highly anticipated works by sought-after modern masters and contemporary luminaries. In advance of the sale, we've spotlighted some artists who have blazed new trails in times past and present, with oeuvres that are deserving of the recognition.

As a child growing up in San Francisco, Amalia Graziani dreamed of becoming a philosophy professor. “The fact that I now spend my days on construction sites still surprises me,” jokes the owner of Noor Property Group, who at 31 has made waves as one of Hudson Valley’s pioneering developers.

In retrospect, the unconventional career choice might just have been written in the stars. “I’d grown up doing renovations with my dad and loved the design process but wrote it off as an impossibility. Although I found my way into development inadvertently, I was methodical about making this dream happen once I recognised its creative potential.”

“Manga is virtual. Manga is [a] sentiment. Manga is resistance. Manga is bizarre. Manga is pathos. Manga is destruction. Manga is arrogance. Manga is love. Manga is kitsch. Manga is [a] sense of wonder. Manga is…there is no conclusion yet.” OSAMU TEZUKA, JAPANESE MANGA ARTIST

As a child growing up in San Francisco, Amalia Graziani dreamed of becoming a philosophy professor. “The fact that I now spend my days on construction sites still surprises me,” jokes the owner of Noor Property Group, who at 31 has made waves as one of Hudson Valley’s pioneering developers.

In retrospect, the unconventional career choice might just have been written in the stars. “I’d grown up doing renovations with my dad and loved the design process but wrote it off as an impossibility. Although I found my way into development inadvertently, I was methodical about making this dream happen once I recognised its creative potential.”

“Contrary to its image of being a soulless city of vast air-conditioned malls, Singapore has become a rambunctious and increasingly sophisticated place. It is building a magnificent arts centre on Marina Bay. Its rich multi-cultural mix is an asset too. … We are benchmarking Singapore against the best cities in the world. We will study the distinctive features of world-class cities and adapt them for Singapore.”

“The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity,” Alberto Giacometti once said. There is something about Japanese artist Izumi Kato's oeuvre that perfectly exemplifies Giacometti's quote, leading the observer into a neverland full of humanoid creatures with alien features, who, even, and especially, with their distorted guises, exude a fantastical spirit that is equal parts terrestrial and celestial. The artist’s largest-ever single canvas at auctio

In advance of Sotheby’s Modern Evening Auction (27 April, Hong Kong), we take a look at a selection of paintings by modern art masters that celebrate the muses who have been the source of their artistic inspiration. Through these works, we sense the resonance and emotional response from the artists’ relationships to their subjects, expressed in a powerful statement of enduring beauty.

The women of Pablo Picasso’s life were the fulcrum of his genius, essential to his creative and intellectual pr

Noted for her kaleidoscopic abstractions of floating moons, knobbly trees and effulgent sunlight, Shara Hughes's brushstrokes freewheel across the canvas in a smorgasbord of colour. The New York-based artist, who earned a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2004 and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2011, has a bold signature that riffs on dramatic tones and dreamlike manifestations. Hughes's oeuvre nods in equal spirit to the deeply saturated palettes of the e