Michael Agresta – words & ideas

I write about art, ideas, culture, and

Portfolio

What Is the Greatest Artwork in Texas?

Giant Steps

The Wonderful World of Bluth

The Fantastic World of Cande Aguilar

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

Vincent Valdez: The Big Picture

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

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

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

Robert Irwin in Marfa

Will the Next Election Be Hacked?

Welcome to Texas, Elon

No Gogh!

A Bigger Canvas (Houston Feature)

Travel & Leisure

How the Western Was Lost, and Why It Matters

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

Thinking Outside the Ballot Box

The Catastrophe Guru

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

Wall Flowers

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

100 Ways to Draw a Line (Transborder Biennial)

How Texas Women Delivered the Nineteenth Amendment

Marfa, Texas Is Getting Its Own Solar-Powered Stonehenge

The Redemption of Sinead O’Connor

Unveiling “Austin”

Bonnie and Clyde at 50

Trenton Doyle Hancock: His Pet Monsters

Can Hackers Mess With Texas’s Elections?

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

“Trapped” in the Limelight

Life During Wartime (book review)

LA Review of Books

Illustrating Border Life for the Next Generation

Adios Utopia, Hello Texas

No, Austin Won’t Become Silicon Valley 2.0

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

The Great Mellowing

The Great Texas Novel about the Spanish Flu

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

Lives in Limbo

The Image in the 21st Century

What We Talk About When We Talk About Cults

Pacific Standard

Dario Robleto artist profile

The Steve Jobs of West Texas

A Tree Grows in San Antonio (Margarita Cabrera)

The Last Book Sale

Cody Wilson, Austin’s Edgelord Prince

What Will Become of the Library?

The Clothes that Make the Man

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

Forgetting How to Read? Stop Reading Online.

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

What Will Become of the Paper Book?

Mark Rothko, Houston’s Absent Son

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

Cult or Cure? (MDMA and PTSD)

At Age 86, Painter Roger Winter Is Still Reinventing Himself

Robert Pruitt: Wards Matter