Michael Agresta – words & ideas

I write about art, ideas, culture, and

Portfolio

Vincent Valdez: The Big Picture

Life During Wartime (book review)

LA Review of Books

Cody Wilson, Austin’s Edgelord Prince

Robert Pruitt: Wards Matter

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

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

Can Hackers Mess With Texas’s Elections?

The Fantastic World of Cande Aguilar

How the Western Was Lost, and Why It Matters

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

Illustrating Border Life for the Next Generation

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

Welcome to Texas, Elon

What Will Become of the Paper Book?

Giant Steps

How Texas Women Delivered the Nineteenth Amendment

At Age 86, Painter Roger Winter Is Still Reinventing Himself

The Image in the 21st Century

A Bigger Canvas (Houston Feature)

Travel & Leisure

A Tree Grows in San Antonio (Margarita Cabrera)

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

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

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

Will the Next Election Be Hacked?

Cult or Cure? (MDMA and PTSD)

No Gogh!

The Redemption of Sinead O’Connor

Trenton Doyle Hancock: His Pet Monsters

Bonnie and Clyde at 50

100 Ways to Draw a Line (Transborder Biennial)

Marfa, Texas Is Getting Its Own Solar-Powered Stonehenge

Wall Flowers

The Wonderful World of Bluth

Adios Utopia, Hello Texas

“Trapped” in the Limelight

Unveiling “Austin”

What Is the Greatest Artwork in Texas?

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

The Catastrophe Guru

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

The Last Book Sale

The Great Texas Novel about the Spanish Flu

Dario Robleto artist profile

Mark Rothko, Houston’s Absent Son

Robert Irwin in Marfa

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

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

Thinking Outside the Ballot Box

No, Austin Won’t Become Silicon Valley 2.0

The Great Mellowing

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

Lives in Limbo

What We Talk About When We Talk About Cults

Pacific Standard

The Clothes that Make the Man

Forgetting How to Read? Stop Reading Online.

What Will Become of the Library?

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

The Steve Jobs of West Texas