Michael Agresta – words & ideas

I write about art, ideas, culture, and

Portfolio

How Texas Women Delivered the Nineteenth Amendment

“Trapped” in the Limelight

Brutally Suppressed in Her Lifetime, Gertrude Beasley Is Finally on Our Bookshelves

Marfa, Texas Is Getting Its Own Solar-Powered Stonehenge

At Age 86, Painter Roger Winter Is Still Reinventing Himself

What We Talk About When We Talk About Cults

Pacific Standard

The Wonderful World of Bluth

Vincent Valdez: The Big Picture

Robert Pruitt: Wards Matter

The Fantastic World of Cande Aguilar

Unveiling “Austin”

No Sign of Trump’s “Millions” of Illegal Voters in Texas

Bonnie and Clyde at 50

Sedrick Huckaby Looks His Subjects in the Eye, from Dreamers to an Ex-President

The Last Book Sale

The Psychedelic State of South Texas (Fernando A. Flores)

Houston’s National Women’s Conference, 40 Years Later

The Steve Jobs of West Texas

Will the Next Election Be Hacked?

Illustrating Border Life for the Next Generation

What Is the Greatest Artwork in Texas?

No, Austin Won’t Become Silicon Valley 2.0

What Will Become of the Library?

How the Western Was Lost, and Why It Matters

The Great Texas Novel about the Spanish Flu

Can Hackers Mess With Texas’s Elections?

The Catastrophe Guru

The People’s Champion (Vincent Valdez’s ‘Dream Baby Dream’)

The Redemption of Sinead O’Connor

100 Ways to Draw a Line (Transborder Biennial)

Cody Wilson, Austin’s Edgelord Prince

Lives in Limbo

Wall Flowers

Welcome to Texas, Elon

EAST Austin Is Over. What’s Next for an Art Scene That’s Losing Its Nucleus?

While We Were Sleeping: The Feds Say a Price-fixing Scheme Costs Texas Patients Tens of Millions

A Bigger Canvas (Houston Feature)

Travel & Leisure

Thinking Outside the Ballot Box

Did Texas Blackouts Reveal Austin’s New Real-Estate Hot Spots?

The Clothes that Make the Man

Has a San Antonio Inventor Solved a Problem of Small-scale Wind Power?

Life During Wartime (book review)

LA Review of Books

The Image in the 21st Century

Giant Steps

Luz Maria Sanchez: Narco Violence, as Seen by a Journalist-Turned-Artist

Houston Photo Exhibit Documents First Markers of Modern U.S.-Mexico Border

Dario Robleto artist profile

Adios Utopia, Hello Texas

Mark Rothko, Houston’s Absent Son

The ‘Moby Dick’ of Texas Football Novels Is Hard-hitting as Ever

Robert Irwin in Marfa

No Gogh!

What Will Become of the Paper Book?

The Great Mellowing

A Tree Grows in San Antonio (Margarita Cabrera)

Cult or Cure? (MDMA and PTSD)

Forgetting How to Read? Stop Reading Online.

Trenton Doyle Hancock: His Pet Monsters