Michael Agresta – words & ideas

I write about art, ideas, culture, and

Portfolio

The Image in the 21st Century

Adios Utopia, Hello Texas

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

A Tree Grows in San Antonio (Margarita Cabrera)

How the Western Was Lost, and Why It Matters

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

Cult or Cure? (MDMA and PTSD)

The Great Texas Novel about the Spanish Flu

The Wonderful World of Bluth

Marfa, Texas Is Getting Its Own Solar-Powered Stonehenge

Bonnie and Clyde at 50

Forgetting How to Read? Stop Reading Online.

The Great Mellowing

The Steve Jobs of West Texas

Vincent Valdez: The Big Picture

A Bigger Canvas (Houston Feature)

Travel & Leisure

What Is the Greatest Artwork in Texas?

How Texas Women Delivered the Nineteenth Amendment

100 Ways to Draw a Line (Transborder Biennial)

Cody Wilson, Austin’s Edgelord Prince

The Redemption of Sinead O’Connor

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

Robert Irwin in Marfa

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?

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

What We Talk About When We Talk About Cults

Pacific Standard

Lives in Limbo

No, Austin Won’t Become Silicon Valley 2.0

Will the Next Election Be Hacked?

Dario Robleto artist profile

At Age 86, Painter Roger Winter Is Still Reinventing Himself

Unveiling “Austin”

The Last Book Sale

Welcome to Texas, Elon

The Fantastic World of Cande Aguilar

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

Can Hackers Mess With Texas’s Elections?

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

Mark Rothko, Houston’s Absent Son

“Trapped” in the Limelight

Robert Pruitt: Wards Matter

Trenton Doyle Hancock: His Pet Monsters

Life During Wartime (book review)

LA Review of Books

The Catastrophe Guru

What Will Become of the Library?

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

Illustrating Border Life for the Next Generation

Giant Steps

Thinking Outside the Ballot Box

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

No Gogh!

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

The Clothes that Make the Man

Wall Flowers

What Will Become of the Paper Book?

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