Michael Agresta – words & ideas

I write about art, ideas, culture, and

Portfolio

The Last Book Sale

At Age 86, Painter Roger Winter Is Still Reinventing Himself

No Gogh!

The Clothes that Make the Man

“Trapped” in the Limelight

The Fantastic World of Cande Aguilar

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

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

What Will Become of the Library?

Mark Rothko, Houston’s Absent Son

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

Welcome to Texas, Elon

Robert Irwin in Marfa

The Image in the 21st Century

100 Ways to Draw a Line (Transborder Biennial)

Will the Next Election Be Hacked?

Lives in Limbo

The Steve Jobs of West Texas

Cult or Cure? (MDMA and PTSD)

What Is the Greatest Artwork in Texas?

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

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

The Catastrophe Guru

Life During Wartime (book review)

LA Review of Books

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

A Bigger Canvas (Houston Feature)

Travel & Leisure

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

No, Austin Won’t Become Silicon Valley 2.0

Marfa, Texas Is Getting Its Own Solar-Powered Stonehenge

Giant Steps

Illustrating Border Life for the Next Generation

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

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

The Wonderful World of Bluth

Unveiling “Austin”

The Great Mellowing

Dario Robleto artist profile

Vincent Valdez: The Big Picture

Adios Utopia, Hello Texas

Trenton Doyle Hancock: His Pet Monsters

Robert Pruitt: Wards Matter

How the Western Was Lost, and Why It Matters

The Great Texas Novel about the Spanish Flu

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

How Texas Women Delivered the Nineteenth Amendment

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

What Will Become of the Paper Book?

Bonnie and Clyde at 50

The Redemption of Sinead O’Connor

Forgetting How to Read? Stop Reading Online.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Cults

Pacific Standard

Cody Wilson, Austin’s Edgelord Prince

A Tree Grows in San Antonio (Margarita Cabrera)

Can Hackers Mess With Texas’s Elections?

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

Wall Flowers

Thinking Outside the Ballot Box

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