News of contemporary sacred art in the former Communist Bloc always interests me, especially when it comes out of Albania, once the most atheistic state of them all. From March 9-15, the National Historical Museum in the capital of Tirana held an exhibition on the biblical theme, Daughters of Eve, featuring oil paintings by Albanian Artist Jorgaq Gogu, depicting a highly varied roster of Old Testament Women, both "heroes" (Sarah and Ruth) and "villains" (Potiphar's wife and Delilah). Gogu paints his figures in brilliant shades of blue and warm earth tones in an appealing, abstract-figurative style, recalling Matisse and the early Picasso. He received formal art training in Albania during the Communist era, emigrated to Greece in 1992 after the fall of the Communist regime, and returned to his homeland in 2004 with a mission to create art, devoted to sacred themes. Gogu held his first major show in this new style in 2008, A History of Chronicles, based on drawings his 7-year old grandson, Teo, made of J. R.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. He is currently working on a follow-up exhibit to Daughters of Eve, devoted to Women of the New Testament. For more information on this interesting Albanian sacred artist and his work, see http://xhorxh.wordpress.com (John Kohan)