Michael Agresta – words & ideas

I write about art, ideas, culture, and

Portfolio

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

Giant Steps

Robert Irwin in Marfa

At Age 86, Painter Roger Winter Is Still Reinventing Himself

Robert Pruitt: Wards Matter

100 Ways to Draw a Line (Transborder Biennial)

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

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

Wall Flowers

Lives in Limbo

Trenton Doyle Hancock: His Pet Monsters

Unveiling “Austin”

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

What Is the Greatest Artwork in Texas?

Illustrating Border Life for the Next Generation

Cody Wilson, Austin’s Edgelord Prince

Adios Utopia, Hello Texas

The Steve Jobs of West Texas

Dario Robleto artist profile

“Trapped” in the Limelight

A Bigger Canvas (Houston Feature)

Travel & Leisure

The Great Texas Novel about the Spanish Flu

Vincent Valdez: The Big Picture

No Gogh!

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

The Wonderful World of Bluth

The Last Book Sale

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

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

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

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

How Texas Women Delivered the Nineteenth Amendment

Thinking Outside the Ballot Box

Mark Rothko, Houston’s Absent Son

How the Western Was Lost, and Why It Matters

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

A Tree Grows in San Antonio (Margarita Cabrera)

No, Austin Won’t Become Silicon Valley 2.0

Cult or Cure? (MDMA and PTSD)

Marfa, Texas Is Getting Its Own Solar-Powered Stonehenge

Forgetting How to Read? Stop Reading Online.

The Fantastic World of Cande Aguilar

The Image in the 21st Century

The Clothes that Make the Man

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

Will the Next Election Be Hacked?

Welcome to Texas, Elon

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

What We Talk About When We Talk About Cults

Pacific Standard

Life During Wartime (book review)

LA Review of Books

The Redemption of Sinead O’Connor

The Catastrophe Guru

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

What Will Become of the Paper Book?

The Great Mellowing

Can Hackers Mess With Texas’s Elections?

Bonnie and Clyde at 50

What Will Become of the Library?