Michael Agresta – words & ideas

I write about art, ideas, culture, and

Portfolio

Unveiling “Austin”

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

The Clothes that Make the Man

Robert Pruitt: Wards Matter

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

How the Western Was Lost, and Why It Matters

“Trapped” in the Limelight

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

Thinking Outside the Ballot Box

The Catastrophe Guru

A Tree Grows in San Antonio (Margarita Cabrera)

Mark Rothko, Houston’s Absent Son

Life During Wartime (book review)

LA Review of Books

Dario Robleto artist profile

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

What Will Become of the Paper Book?

At Age 86, Painter Roger Winter Is Still Reinventing Himself

Giant Steps

Marfa, Texas Is Getting Its Own Solar-Powered Stonehenge

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

Wall Flowers

Cult or Cure? (MDMA and PTSD)

Welcome to Texas, Elon

No Gogh!

Forgetting How to Read? Stop Reading Online.

The Image in the 21st Century

Cody Wilson, Austin’s Edgelord Prince

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

The Steve Jobs of West Texas

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

What Will Become of the Library?

Can Hackers Mess With Texas’s Elections?

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

The Redemption of Sinead O’Connor

The Last Book Sale

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

The Great Texas Novel about the Spanish Flu

No, Austin Won’t Become Silicon Valley 2.0

Robert Irwin in Marfa

What We Talk About When We Talk About Cults

Pacific Standard

Adios Utopia, Hello Texas

Illustrating Border Life for the Next Generation

Will the Next Election Be Hacked?

What Is the Greatest Artwork in Texas?

The Wonderful World of Bluth

Trenton Doyle Hancock: His Pet Monsters

Vincent Valdez: The Big Picture

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

The Great Mellowing

How Texas Women Delivered the Nineteenth Amendment

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

Bonnie and Clyde at 50

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

A Bigger Canvas (Houston Feature)

Travel & Leisure

The Fantastic World of Cande Aguilar

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

Lives in Limbo

100 Ways to Draw a Line (Transborder Biennial)