By Nina Heyn Named the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, this new art destination in Los Angeles opened its doors to the public on September 22, 2026. Its long birth process started in the late 1990s when George Lucas’s original concept placed the museum’s location in San Francisco and later in Chicago. Neither location panned…
By Nina Heyn They are baaaack…. These recommendations are for some of the shows that have been renewed due to popular demand (or the streamers’ fall slate planning—you pick the reason). The list is led by the always brilliant Slow Horses in its sixth iteration (and there are more Mick Herron books to adapt). Most…
By Nina Heyn In the history of art, the recognition of women artists beyond academic circles is really a 21st-century phenomenon. The early Baroque Italian artist Sophonisba Anguissola (1552-1614) was only recently credited as the author of major Spanish royal portraits. Thanks to several exhibitions and Internet fame, Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) is now almost a…
By Nina Heyn First, some geography and history. Dordogne, the official name of a department in southwest France, covers a large swath of the country east of the coastal city of Bordeaux and belongs to the region of Aquitaine (what Julius Caesar referred to as “Aquitania” in his famous text on the Gallic wars). Dordogne…
By Nina Heyn For world travelers Warsaw is becoming one of the hottest tourist destinations with over 20 million tourists a year. Many visitors come for extremely good food, both in grocery stores and at a plethora of gastropubs, food courts, breakfast markets, street food areas, and restaurants of all levels that specialize in anything…
By Nina Heyn Director Christopher Nolan does not let his audiences down. Every few years, he makes that one “must-see” film of the year: The Dark Knight in 2008, Inception in 2010, Interstellar in 2014, Dunkirk in 2017, Oppenheimer in 2023. This year, his movie The Odyssey is such a film. Tickets to IMAX shows…
By Nina Heyn Every two years, Venice hosts the Art Biennale (art alternates with architecture)—a showcase of exhibitions from various countries as well as individual artists’ presentations. The latest 61st edition, titled “In Minor Keys,” includes entries from 110 participants—countries, organizations, art collectives, or individuals. The Biennale’s curator, Koyo Kouoh, passed away in 2025, but…
By Nina Heyn The latest film from Steven Spielberg, Disclosure Day, brings forward his trademark theme of alien visitations. He explores the issue through a race between scientist Daniel Keller (Josh O’Connor), a whistleblower who stole archival footage of the U.S. government’s encounters with extraterrestrials (starting from the Roswell incident in 1947), and the said…
By Nina Heyn Imagine that it is 1871 in Paris. The city, and in fact the whole country, are recovering from a brutal Franco-Prussian war as well as a revolt of Communards that has destroyed many Paris streets and buildings. In the art world, the paintings considered most prestigious are historical and mythological tableaux that…
By Nina Heyn When we think of Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) we evoke his paintings of jungles and monkeys, which are indeed what made him immortal, but this self-taught painter started with something else. He embarked on the path of an artist when he was a middle-aged man holding the mundane job of tax collector at…