How to Choose the Best Contractor for Your Renovation | Early fall is the best time to renovate. No inclement weather to worry about yet, ample daylight to extend work into the evenings, and more opportunities for a condensed timeline. Choosing the right contractor to make your home renovation dreams a reality, however, can present a challenge.

Artists are using their eyes to read books in a different way, architects are building residences that mirror their environments, and interior designers are rediscovering the finer points of magnificent details. Here are the latest trends in art, architecture, and design.

Massimo Bottura at the Intersection of Art and Artisan | At the heart of Massimo Bottura’s Osteria Francescana is both Italian food and Contemporary Art, and the more you talk to him, the harder it becomes to parse out where one ends and the other begins. This September, the legendary chef lends his creative eye and passionate spirit to Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated Auction in New York.

What’s new in Art, Architecture, and Design | Beautiful, bold, and beneficial are the catchwords this season in the worlds of art, architecture, and design. We’re decorating our bodies, building healthy environments, and brightening our rooms with rainbows of color. Here’s what’s happening.

The Inspiration of Shohei Shigematsu | A Japan-born architect, Shohei Shigematsu is the driving force behind the design of renowned cultural venues including the Quebec National Beaux Arts Museum, the Faena Arts Center in Miami Beach, and the re-imagined gallery spaces at Sotheby's NY.

Sotheby's | Analyzing the May New York Auctions - The recent wave of New York auctions was a steady sweep, with more than $2.1bn spent on Impressionist, Modern and contemporary art at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips in one week. The results were roughly in line with the past several sales seasons, suggesting that this is neither a frothy up-market or a messy down-one but a steady settling in.

5 Interior Design Trends to Bring Home from Luxury Hotels | With design-forward hotels popping up on every corner of the globe, it can sometimes be hard to choose where to land—and even harder to leave at the end of your stay. Resorts are prioritizing not only a sense of relaxation, but are also balancing authenticity and a sense of communion with the environment. It’s not enough to offer basic amenities anymore; seasoned travelers are looking for spaces with a story to tell. From unique architectural builds to environmentally-conscious practices to sleek and smart interiors, luxury hotels have become destinations unto themselves.

Modern Edge | Kaly Ryan and Bram Sawatzky of Willow & Stump Design Co., have been cleverly marrying form and function since 2014 — all with an ethos of sustainability. Their multidisciplinary studio in East Vancouver has garnered national attention, thanks to the duo’s steam-bending and 3D fabrication techniques, seen on smart, stylish items like the canoe-inspired Fluyt bench that doubles as a storage unit, and the Corian chair, which incorporates thermoformed curves and complex patterns carved into the seat and back.

Amaro’s Hipness Soars | Amaro, an herbal, bittersweet Italian liqueur, finds its origins in medieval health care. Obsessed with the restorative powers of alchemy and natural botanicals, medieval monks and friars in abbeys across Italy often experimented with mixing and matching liquor and wine with herbs. The monks stuck mostly to ingredients that could be found nearby, ensuring that over the centuries different amari (the plural form of the drink) began taking on regional peculiarities. Bitter orange in Sicily. Rhubarb in Alto Adige. Artichoke in Milan.

Artisanal Modern | Crafted from a single piece of steel rod, this sinuously shaped lounger designed by Canadian Roan Barrion and welded by metalworker Matt Jonker is made-to-order in Manitoba. Available in two metal finishes (black or white powder coat, satin brass plate) and several fabric options. Series Z Lounge Chair, from US$3,100, and stool, from US$1,250.

Ferragamo’s Tuscany | When Tuscany comes to mind, we might imagine Chianti’s lush, rippling fields, Florence’s abundance of Italian Renaissance art, and perhaps even the 2003 romance-drama Under the Tuscan Sun. But this region in central Italy, beloved for its quaint villages, rugged coastline, and world-class wines, signifies much more to Salvatore Ferragamo, grandson of the eponymous fashion-house legend and CEO of Il Borro Toscana, an alluring estate in the Tuscan countryside

Sotheby’s Celebrates 275 Years | This year marks the 275th anniversary of the Sotheby’s Auction house. 2019 also denotes the 70thanniversary of our company. While sharing significant anniversaries is something to celebrate in itself, today we’re blogging about more than that. We’re writing to celebrate the very DNA that our company shares with Sotheby’s, namely, a heritage of innovation and dedication to continuously evolving.

What’s New in Art, Architecture, and Design | Whether we’re talking trends in art, architecture, or design, it’s all about seeing the beauty of traditional materials used in new ways. It’s looking at ordinary objects in a different light. It’s rethinking the purpose of conventional spaces. But most of all, it’s about being open to possibilities.

The New Private Clubs | Private social clubs, traditional bastions of upper-class decorum, are reinventing themselves as democratic gathering spots for a diverse, younger generation of members.

The old clubs are easing membership rules, dress codes, and even fees, while new clubs like the one being planned by David Beckham and Guy Ritchie in West London’s Notting Hill are catering to the chic sneakers-and-cellphone crowd.

Last week we visited De Pijp and discovered Amsterdam’s coolest neighborhood. Today, we join Sotheby’s and Tim Marlow as we travel to the neighboring Van Gogh museum to explore a can’t-miss exhibit.

Karl Lagerfeld’s Parisian Home | On design Lagerfeld says "We are at the heart of a Russian doll: first the clothes, then the apartments and houses. Even the streets and the cities are part of the evolution of our preferences and our taste."

“So many people reference Dior. He’s one of those people in fashion: everybody knows who he is, everybody knows the silhouette he created,” says Oriole Cullen, the curator of Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams, a major new exhibition at London’s V&A museum devoted to the influential French fashion designer and the powerhouse he left behind. The retrospective is the biggest Dior show ever staged in the UK, and one of a string of exhibitions around the world that reveal Dior’s extraordinary popularity right now.

Lighting and shelter are often intertwined, as they evoke the warmth and familiarity of home — the porch light as a welcoming beacon or, perhaps, seen from the street through the windows, a glow hinting at the lively gathering inside.

Evocative as it is, lighting design has been garnering more appreciation recently. “While lighting will always be an essential product in both residential and commercial applications, it’s morphing into a powerhouse category of its own,” says Karen Kang, national director of the Interior Design Show (IDS), which showcases innovative new products and design concepts in Canada and beyond. “Canadian creatives, such as Matthew McCormick, Anony and Guillaume Sasseville, are making a significant impact on the world stage where they’re presenting lighting, not just as a necessary form but [also] re-imagining it with technology, provenance and design that push the boundaries of innovation.”

New research finds that African-American artists are still underrepresented in US museums. Charlotte Burns and artnet News’ Julia Halperin dig into the data.

As a child growing up in Alabama in the 1950s and 1960s, Jack Whitten was not permitted inside his segregated local museum in Birmingham. Last year the late artist was the subject of a major exhibition at the Met Breuer in New York. Its title, aptly, was Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture 1963–2017.

Photographer and multidisciplinary artist David Drebin on the transitory nature of home. When we speak on the phone, David Drebin is at home, sort of. It is early July and the New York–based photographer and multidisciplinary artist is spending the summer in Toronto, where he was born and raised. But, he stresses, he is not here for R&R, taking it easy or chilling. “I don’t really relax and unwind, or take a break, because I love what I do,” he says. He’s working on post-production in Canada. Then he hits the road again.