Abilene, Through the Looking Glass
A monumental blown-glass installation inside a sparkling new library reflects a city—one grappling with an AI boom and an insurgent book-banner—that’s defined by its slippery cultural identity.
Art
Eye on Texas: Border Tuner
In November, a massive public art project lit up the sky over El Paso and Juárez, prompting conversations both funny and serious, political and personal.
The Fantastic World of Cande Aguilar
The wildly imaginative Brownsville painter fuses pop culture with abstraction, family life, and his love of South Texas.
Artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer on the Importance of Telling Complex, Nuanced Border Stories
A massive public art project lit up the sky over El Paso and Juárez this month, prompting conversations both funny and serious, political and personal.
Goodbye to the Amarillo Art Mall
After 14 years, the artist colony inside a former Amarillo shopping mall is being laid to rest. Now the Panhandle creative-types who called the place home “are just gonna get scattered.”
Immigrants Put Down Roots in a San Antonio Art Exhibit
Admitted: USA paired immigrant artists with mentors who helped them write an artist statement and grant proposals, apply for public art commissions, and market themselves on social media.
Little Arthouse on the Prairie
In tiny Albany, Texas, you can’t shop at Walmart or buy a beer, but you can see one of the state’s best and quirkiest art collections.
Fort Worth Artist Jeremy Joel Tackles Addiction, Trauma and Redemption
His new exhibit “Pass the Peas” shows how the city’s small, fast-growing art ecosystem offers nontraditional artists support and community.
A Strange and Wonderful New Book Celebrates the Often-Ignored Work of Outsider Artists
The 11 short biographies included in the book — largely tales of suffering, redemption and mystery — are told with great sensitivity and warmth.
Climate Change, Mexican Folk Healing and Fantastical Beasts Collide in South Texas Painter’s Austin Show
Ricardo Vicente Jose Ruiz’s eerie black-and-white paintings draw on his South Texas roots and his fear of global warming.