Yesengali Sadyrbaev is a friend of mine from Almaty, famous for his realistic oil paintings of the national hunt. He did a beautiful series on Central Asian bazaars, too, and both projects are characterized by an obsessive attention to detail: he’d confer with falconers to check the posture of an eagle, or study the evolution of national clothing to make sure his hunters’ costumes were historically accurate. Lately, he’s taken several commissions from falconers who admire his work, painting them with their birds like khans of the past. He’s a talent but a modest man, and somebody whose work I’m honored to recommend.