Michael Agresta – words & ideas

I write about art, ideas, culture, and

Portfolio

A Tree Grows in San Antonio (Margarita Cabrera)

Unveiling “Austin”

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

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

What Will Become of the Library?

No Gogh!

100 Ways to Draw a Line (Transborder Biennial)

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

Can Hackers Mess With Texas’s Elections?

Forgetting How to Read? Stop Reading Online.

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

Welcome to Texas, Elon

Lives in Limbo

The Fantastic World of Cande Aguilar

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

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

What Will Become of the Paper Book?

The Catastrophe Guru

Cult or Cure? (MDMA and PTSD)

Life During Wartime (book review)

LA Review of Books

Cody Wilson, Austin’s Edgelord Prince

How Texas Women Delivered the Nineteenth Amendment

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

Dario Robleto artist profile

Film Reviews and Local Arts Coverage

Austin Chronicle

The Wonderful World of Bluth

Thinking Outside the Ballot Box

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

The Great Mellowing

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

Robert Irwin in Marfa

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

Adios Utopia, Hello Texas

Wall Flowers

Will the Next Election Be Hacked?

Marfa, Texas Is Getting Its Own Solar-Powered Stonehenge

The Last Book Sale

No, Austin Won’t Become Silicon Valley 2.0

Trenton Doyle Hancock: His Pet Monsters

What We Talk About When We Talk About Cults

Pacific Standard

“Trapped” in the Limelight

How the Western Was Lost, and Why It Matters

Mark Rothko, Houston’s Absent Son

Robert Pruitt: Wards Matter

At Age 86, Painter Roger Winter Is Still Reinventing Himself

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

Illustrating Border Life for the Next Generation

A Bigger Canvas (Houston Feature)

Travel & Leisure

What Is the Greatest Artwork in Texas?

The Image in the 21st Century

The Steve Jobs of West Texas

Bonnie and Clyde at 50

Giant Steps

Vincent Valdez: The Big Picture

The Great Texas Novel about the Spanish Flu

The Redemption of Sinead O’Connor

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

The Clothes that Make the Man