Glasstire

Glasstire Publisher Brandon Zech and Guest Editor Lucia Simek discuss the Texas artists and collectives who've taken on institutional critique, how the genre so often slips into performance and discomfort, and what it means to critique an institution you also depend on.

"You need to be housed by the institution in order to make work that pushes against it, and so there's a certain affection you have for your enemy."

See related readings here: https://glasstire.com/2026/10/18/art-dirt-talking-about-institutional-critique

This year, we're launching Glasstire's first-ever Annual Fund! If you enjoy reading and listening, and would like to support our work, please consider donating. As a nonprofit, all of the money we receive goes back into our coverage of Texas art and artists. You can make a one-time donation or become a sustaining, monthly supporter here: https://glasstire.com/donate

Glasstire's William Sarradet and Nicholas Frank discuss new books on Texas art and architecture, talk about the dialogue between minimalism and rasquachismo in Josh T. Franco's "Marfa, Marfa," and run through exhibition catalogs, political comics, and the latest issue of "F Magazine."

"Rasquachismo… we could say it's making do with what you have. Josh T. Franco is trying to draw direct lines between these two seemingly opposing aesthetics."

See related readings here: https://glasstire.com/2026/10/04/art-dirt-what-were-reading-architecture-rasquachismo-zines

This week's podcast is sponsored in part by The Mosaic Workshop and their third annual Austin Mosaic Fest happening October 24–31. The festival is a weeklong celebration featuring international artists, new murals, art talks, and hands-on collaborative art for all ages and experience levels. Drop in daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. to make your own mosaic and meet expert mosaic artists. Every mosaic gets a free grout kit during the fest. Learn more here: https://www.themosaicworkshop.org

This week's podcast is sponsored in part by The Tex-indie Author Book Fair, the largest festival of Texas-based independent literary creators, happening October 17 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Houston. The event features 125+ literary creators of all genres who are excited to share their stories at this free, family-friendly, indoor event. Tex-indie will additionally offer workshops for experienced and blossoming writers alike. For more information, go here: https://www.facebook.com/share/1EXtV3aMkZ

If you enjoy Glasstire and would like to support our work, please consider donating. As a nonprofit, all of the money we receive goes back into our coverage of Texas art. You can make a one-time donation or become a sustaining, monthly donor here: https://glasstire.com/donate

Throughout 2026, as part of Glasstire’s 25th anniversary, the publication is organizing panel discussions in Dallas-Fort Worth, The Panhandle, West Texas, East Texas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and The Valley. Each panel features artists, art critics, and arts professionals from the region discussing the area’s art and art writing over the past two-and-a-half decades.

Glasstire presented the fourth Talking Texas Art event at the Tyler Museum of Art on Sunday, August 23. Panelists included Candace Hicks, an interdisciplinary artist and Associate Professor at Stephen F. Austin State University; Caleb Bell, Executive Director of the Tyler Museum of Art and a Glasstire contributing writer; O. Rufus Lovett, a photographer and curator in Longview, former director of the Image Gallery, and longtime instructor at Kilgore College; and John Ewing, a freelance writer, editor, children’s book publisher, and Glasstire contributing writer based in Tyler. The panel was moderated by William Sarradet, Glasstire’s Assistant Editor.

If you enjoy Glasstire and would like to support our work, please consider donating. As a nonprofit, all of the money we receive goes back into our coverage of Texas art and artists. You can make a one-time donation or become a sustaining, monthly donor here: https://glasstire.com/donate

William Sarradet speaks with Dallas dealer Bart Keijsers Koning about a gallery's responsibilities to the arts ecosystem, how artists can engage with galleries, and what a gallery actually does.

"Get a space, put it on the wall, see what happens, get it out of the studio. And once you start understanding your work that way, it will just make everything clear for the next engagement… When an ecosystem works like that, it's super healthy."

See related readings here: https://glasstire.com/2026/09/20/art-dirt-the-work-a-gallery-does-talking-with-bart-keijsers-koning

This week's podcast is sponsored in part by The Tex-indie Author Book Fair, the largest festival of Texas-based independent literary creators, happening October 17 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Houston. The event features 125+ literary creators of all genres who are excited to share their stories at this free, family-friendly, indoor event. Tex-indie will additionally offer workshops for experienced and blossoming writers alike. For more information, visit the Tex-indie Author Book Fair's website: https://www.tex-indiebookfair.org

If you enjoy Glasstire and would like to support our work, please consider donating. As a nonprofit, all of the money we receive goes back into our coverage of Texas art. You can make a one-time donation or become a sustaining, monthly donor here: https://glasstire.com/donate

Brandon Zech speaks with gallerist Laura Burton, owner of Laura (the gallery), about leaving New York and opening a space in Houston, why art fairs matter to a young gallery, and how she thinks about her program's aesthetic.

"There's an amazing floor in the front of the gallery that we're kind of famous for, because it has all of these layers of history… There are spills of paint, shadows from spray paint from the artists that have worked in here and used it as their space. There's a history imbued into that floor."

See related readings here: https://glasstire.com/2026/09/06/art-dirt-learning-the-city-talking-with-laura-burton

If you enjoy Glasstire and would like to support our work, please consider donating. As a nonprofit, all of the money we receive goes back into our coverage of Texas art. You can make a one-time donation or become a sustaining, monthly donor here: glasstire.com/donate

William Sarradet speaks with Galveston-based paint conservator and object restoration artist Jhonny Langer about disaster mitigation, the slow work of triage and salvage after a storm, and what a century of Gulf Coast weather has taught the island about holding onto things.

"The biggest excuse for tearing down an amazing structure is that it's too costly. And I would propose that it's too costly not to have that building; it's too costly not to have art history."

See related readings here: https://glasstire.com/2026/08/23/art-dirt-what-the-water-leaves-behind-talking-with-jhonny-langer

This week's podcast is sponsored in part by Art Boost. Calling all Texas artists, of any discipline: If you've hit a wall in your creative career, Art Boost wants to help you break through in the business of art. Join Art Boost September 11-12 at Dallas's Latino Cultural Center for the fourth annual Art Boost Conference. It's two days covering finances, marketing, and systems that free you up to make more art, plus keynotes from Jon Flaming and Will Evans. Learn more and get tickets here: https://artboost.org

If you enjoy Glasstire and would like to support our work, please consider donating. As a nonprofit, all of the money we receive goes back into our coverage of Texas art. You can make a one-time donation or become a sustaining, monthly donor here: https://glasstire.com/donate

William Sarradet speaks with "Dallas Morning News" architecture critic and 2026 Pulitzer winner Mark Lamster about the contradictions and marvels of Dallas architecture, what's at stake with losing iconic buildings, and his new book, "Welcome to Paradox City."

"I like to say that living in Dallas is like going to the circus every day. It's an inherent craziness... It's wonderful and it's frustrating all at the same time. It's just a city of endless contradiction."

See related readings here: https://glasstire.com/2026/08/09/art-dirt-dallas-is-paradox-city-talking-with-mark-lamster

If you enjoy Glasstire and would like to support our work, please consider donating. As a nonprofit, all of the money we receive goes back into our coverage of Texas art. You can make a one-time donation or become a sustaining, monthly donor here: glasstire.com/donate

Brandon Zech and Jessica Fuentes discuss Texas' art museums since 2020, including renovations, closures, collaborations, and curatorial shifts.

“You think of these kind of smaller-scale, midsize institutions, or even noncollecting kunsthalles, that have smaller budgets ... as being very much affected by leadership and curatorialship transitions because they are, and oftentimes the impact is larger the smaller the organization... but that's also much more true for large multimillion-dollar museums.”

See related readings here: https://glasstire.com/2026/07/26/art-dirt-the-state-of-texas-museums

If you enjoy Glasstire and would like to support our work, please consider donating. As a nonprofit, all of the money we receive goes back into our coverage of Texas art. You can make a one-time donation or become a sustaining, monthly donor here: https://glasstire.com/donate

Throughout 2026, as part of Glasstire’s 25th anniversary, the publication is organizing panel discussions in Dallas-Fort Worth, The Panhandle, West Texas, East Texas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and The Valley. Each panel features artists, art critics, and arts professionals from the region discussing the area’s art and art writing over the past two-and-a-half decades.

Glasstire presented the third Talking Texas Art event at the El Paso Museum of Art on Thursday, June 18. Panelists included Buck Johnston, co-owner of Wrong Marfa and Do Right Hall in Marfa; Rebecca Muñoz, Director of the El Paso Mexican American Cultural Center; and Gaspar Enríquez, an El Paso-born artist and educator. The panel was moderated by Jessica Fuentes, Glasstire’s Editor-in-Chief.

If you enjoy Glasstire and would like to support our work, please consider donating. As a nonprofit, all of the money we receive goes back into our coverage of Texas art. You can make a one-time donation or become a sustaining, monthly donor here: https://glasstire.com/donate

Brandon Zech, Jessica Fuentes, and Nicholas Frank speak about issues around AI-generated art and writing following ArtReview USA's unauthorized republication of articles published by Glasstire.

“Whenever I have someone ask me if I am scared about AI, and if it's going to take my job or do what Glasstire does, my answer is always no, in part because the writing that we do... is about opinions and points of view and digesting things and processing them in a very human way.”

See related readings here: https://glasstire.com/2026/07/12/art-dirt-can-ai-generate-good-art-writing/

Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, which is presenting the exhibition Mary Ellen Carroll: How To Talk Dirty and Influence People through November 1, 2026. Focusing on a selection of key projects spanning over 40 years, this is the first-ever exhibition to survey the work of the acclaimed multidisciplinary artist. The show charts the import and impact of the artist's exploration of some of the most urgent issues of our time, including environmentalism, architectural and technological infrastructure, immigration, and urban legislation, as well as the artist’s engagement with questions of sexuality, identity, and being. To learn more, go here: https://camh.org/event/mary-ellen-carroll-how-to-talk-dirty-and-influence-people/