Michael Agresta – words & ideas

I write about art, ideas, culture, and

Portfolio

The Great Mellowing

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

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

Adios Utopia, Hello Texas

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

The Catastrophe Guru

The Image in the 21st Century

Vincent Valdez: The Big Picture

What Will Become of the Paper Book?

Welcome to Texas, Elon

Cody Wilson, Austin’s Edgelord Prince

Bonnie and Clyde at 50

A Tree Grows in San Antonio (Margarita Cabrera)

Robert Pruitt: Wards Matter

Will the Next Election Be Hacked?

“Trapped” in the Limelight

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

How Texas Women Delivered the Nineteenth Amendment

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

A Bigger Canvas (Houston Feature)

Travel & Leisure

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

Marfa, Texas Is Getting Its Own Solar-Powered Stonehenge

Giant Steps

100 Ways to Draw a Line (Transborder Biennial)

The Wonderful World of Bluth

The Last Book Sale

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

Thinking Outside the Ballot Box

No Gogh!

What Will Become of the Library?

Lives in Limbo

The Clothes that Make the Man

Unveiling “Austin”

No, Austin Won’t Become Silicon Valley 2.0

Trenton Doyle Hancock: His Pet Monsters

What Is the Greatest Artwork in Texas?

Robert Irwin in Marfa

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

Dario Robleto artist profile

The Great Texas Novel about the Spanish Flu

What We Talk About When We Talk About Cults

Pacific Standard

At Age 86, Painter Roger Winter Is Still Reinventing Himself

The Fantastic World of Cande Aguilar

Life During Wartime (book review)

LA Review of Books

Mark Rothko, Houston’s Absent Son

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

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

Cult or Cure? (MDMA and PTSD)

The Redemption of Sinead O’Connor

Forgetting How to Read? Stop Reading Online.

Wall Flowers

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

The Steve Jobs of West Texas

How the Western Was Lost, and Why It Matters

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

Can Hackers Mess With Texas’s Elections?

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

Illustrating Border Life for the Next Generation