Michael Agresta – words & ideas

I write about art, ideas, culture, and

Portfolio

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

A Bigger Canvas (Houston Feature)

Travel & Leisure

The Steve Jobs of West Texas

How the Western Was Lost, and Why It Matters

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

Film Reviews and Local Arts Coverage

Austin Chronicle

Can Hackers Mess With Texas’s Elections?

Wall Flowers

“Trapped” in the Limelight

The Great Texas Novel about the Spanish Flu

100 Ways to Draw a Line (Transborder Biennial)

Lives in Limbo

Trenton Doyle Hancock: His Pet Monsters

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

What Will Become of the Paper Book?

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

Will the Next Election Be Hacked?

The Image in the 21st Century

The Redemption of Sinead O’Connor

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

Marfa, Texas Is Getting Its Own Solar-Powered Stonehenge

The Last Book Sale

Cody Wilson, Austin’s Edgelord Prince

The Catastrophe Guru

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

Illustrating Border Life for the Next Generation

A Tree Grows in San Antonio (Margarita Cabrera)

Forgetting How to Read? Stop Reading Online.

The Clothes that Make the Man

Bonnie and Clyde at 50

No Gogh!

Unveiling “Austin”

Mark Rothko, Houston’s Absent Son

Dario Robleto artist profile

No, Austin Won’t Become Silicon Valley 2.0

At Age 86, Painter Roger Winter Is Still Reinventing Himself

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

Adios Utopia, Hello Texas

Robert Irwin in Marfa

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

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

What We Talk About When We Talk About Cults

Pacific Standard

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

How Texas Women Delivered the Nineteenth Amendment

Vincent Valdez: The Big Picture

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

Giant Steps

What Will Become of the Library?

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

Welcome to Texas, Elon

Life During Wartime (book review)

LA Review of Books

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

What Is the Greatest Artwork in Texas?

The Wonderful World of Bluth

The Fantastic World of Cande Aguilar

Cult or Cure? (MDMA and PTSD)

Robert Pruitt: Wards Matter

Thinking Outside the Ballot Box

The Great Mellowing