Impactful Texas Art Magazine Celebrates 20 Years With a Special Art Auction — Glasstire Makes it Matter

As the cliche goes, everything is bigger in Texas, including its venerable art publications. See Glasstire, the oldest online-only art magazine in the country, and among the largest and most revered. This year marks the prestigious institution’s 20th anniversary, celebrating two decades of authentic and authoritative arts coverage of Texas’ lively and relevant art cities. That means Houston, Dallas, Marfa, Austin, San Antonio and various other galleries, museums, pop-ups and events occurring within the Lone Star State’s vast confines.

Naturally, to coincide with the Houston-based website’s big-time 20th anniversary, the nonprofit curated an art auction unlike any other. The biggest and most eclectic in its history.

Glasstire’s 20th Anniversary Art Auction is a loving tribute to and celebration of the often raucous, but always important Texas art scene featuring works from more than 30 distinguished artists including boldface, blue-chip names such as Deborah Roberts, Sedrick Huckaby and James Surls, alongside up-and-coming artists fresh to the Texas stage and ready to join their acclaimed ranks.

Other contributors range from educators and teachers to those who have contributed to the mighty arts organ itself. (Houston artist Michael Bise, represented in the auction with a stunningly immense drawing dubbed Mom & Dad, 2011, among them.) By supporting Glasstire‘s art auction, one is then directly supporting both the publication and its independent artists within.

Prominent featured artists and noteworthy names include photographer and sculptor Nic Nicosia (a former Guggenheim Fellow), acclaimed photographer Misty Keasler and the fascinating Julie Speed (the subject of an in-depth profile in Glasstire).

In a changing media world that transforms often, with outlets that debut then fold in the blink of an eye, that the independently produced and published Glasstire remains both alive and relevant is a minor miracle. This Houston-based nonprofit relies on its art auctions yearly to keep itself afloat.

Glasstire‘s auction is open to anyone by design. There is enough art for anyone, ready to begin collecting at any dollar amount, from a mere $100 to nearly five-figure lots in the auction’s upper echelon.

The coveted lots range in size, style and medium, from Annette Lawrence’s precise drawings on paper to Bruce Lee Webb’s mammoth painting on canvas, Bird (2014), to Letitia Huckaby‘s Studies for Koinonia (2020), a poignant collection of five prints on cotton fabric, individually framed. The breadth of the auction goes a long way toward sustaining Glasstire, along with generous grants both from local and national endowments.

To browse the lots and bid, click here. But timeliness is key: Glasstire’s 20th Anniversary Auction runs through 9 pm this Saturday, July 17.