Eliminating considerations of taste was a common goal during the golden age of Minimalism and Conceptual art. The idea was to disengage art from the frivolity of Pop as well as from bourgeois hypocrisy. Ironically, in the past decade the minimal/conceptual look has enjoyed an ever-widening popularity and fostered a burgeoning market. And this look has become the standard of taste—smart, elegant, wholesome.

This turn of events becomes blatantly evident in the recent works of Laredo-born Thomas Glassford. Glassford has explored the functional potential of sculpture ever since he moved to Mexico