HP Billboard Gallery

The Holland Project’s Billboard Gallery showcases the work of exceptional emerging and established regional artists on billboards throughout Reno’s surface streets. The project was launched and made possible by an Art Belongs Here Grant from the City of Reno Arts & Culture Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, generous donations from supporters like Temple Builders LLC, Brooks Family Dental, and Sierra Hearing Center, as well as the support and guidance of our partners with the Wells Ave. Merchants Association and Lamar Outdoor Advertising. In November 2023, the program will return with further support from the City of Reno Arts & Culture Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Nevada Humanities.

Love this project? We could use your support to continue the HP Billboard and provide this opportunity to Nevada artists. Please reach out to alana@hollandreno.org to help sponsor this important initiative and public art program for the years to come.

December 2024 ARTISTS + WORKS

Location #1: Oddie Blvd. & US-395

Artist: Metal Jeff
Artwork: Looming Gaits, 2024, Pen, acrylic, stain, gold leaf, wood
Website | Ins tagram

Bio: Jeff is a Reno artist that has practiced several mediums over time, with a focus mostly on illustration and photography. Inspiration and visual language is inspired by heavy music and comic books, along with classic art that all merges together in some fashion or another.

Statement: The primary body of work is rooted in the idea of a mythology that doesn’t exist, or no longer exists. Incorporating elements of mythological themes and beings, along with nature, in an attempt to create visuals that are beautiful and strange.

Location #2: Wells Avenue Bridge

Artist: Tara Tran
Artwork: 22,000 Lithium Mining Claims. 31,000,000 Acres Approved For Solar Development, 2024, paper clay, gouache, android camera, Peavine Mountain
Instagra m

Bio: Tara Tran likes to learn about their surroundings, sing in the band Grub, do small favors for their friends, and sometimes paint and sculpt. They are inspired by the mountains, valleys and water and everyone that calls it home. Professionally, Tara is dedicated to promoting stewardship by increasing equitable access to nature through education. Informed by the many smarter voices around them, they believe a responsibility and connection to the earth is essential to personal and communal wellbeing. Their multimedia artistic practice has most recently centered around a reverence for that connection.

Statement: What will your power mean when there is no water to drink? When dust fills the air? What is green energy in a world spoken into existence by a mouth hungry only for profit? Our salvation will not lie in untampered consumption.

What is the cost of green energy when capacity for exploitation is increased, with no mind for reduction of need? Will we pollute the air, water and land as we extract and then again as we send volatile substances to sit in landfills on the other side of the world, leaching into their water? Will we let them level irreplaceable ecosystems for short term solutions while land already ravaged lays bare? Will we sit idly by as mining camps continue to endanger to indigenous communities?

How many more plants, animals and people will be displaced from the lands they have called home for thousands of years so that corporations can profit? How long will it take for you to recognize another advertising campaign?

Location #3: Keystone Ave. & 2nd St.

Artist: Joe C Rock
Artwork: Untitled (Tryptic), 2024, Mixed Media Painting
Website | Instagram

Bio: Reno-based artist Joseph Corgile is a distinguished muralist under the alias “Joe C. Rock”. Born in Stockton, California in 1985, Corgile moved to Reno, Nevada with his mother at age eight. His passion for skateboarding took him through his school years and immersed him in a love for pop culture, graffiti, and travel. Corgile was already a prolific artist working in acrylic, oil, textile, mosaic, sculpture, and more when he transitioned his art toward mural painting in 2009. At that time, the city of Reno showed little to no appreciation for street art. Corgile recognized this area of his expertise was underserved and offered his artwork as a solution. Dedicated to leaving his mark on every wall possible, the young artist took it upon himself to develop relationships with many of Midtown’s small businesses, an effort that resulted in numerous mural collaborations. Today, Corgile for his contributions to the place he calls home. In 2017, he was awarded a Certificate of Commendation from Senator Catherine Cortez Masto in recognition of his dedication and passion for the arts, commemorating his artistic contribution to the community. Additionally, the City of Reno Historical Resources Commission presented Corgile with the 2018 Historic Preservation Award for murals depicting Reno’s history. Readers of the Reno News & Review also voted Joe C. Rock as “Best Muralist” three years running while the City of Reno’s Mayor showed their personal gratitude for street art’s lasting impact by officially proclaiming July 28th to be “Joe C. Rock and Erik Burke Day”.

The mark of Joe C Rock also lines arterial highways across North America, Mexico, and South America; displayed on the walls of cities including Cuzco, Lima, Tijuana, Rosarito, New Orleans, Austin, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Sacramento. He uses history, people, urban landscape, and the states of flora and fauna as fuel for his ever-changing artwork. Joe C. Rock, the Master of Muralism, continues to create and challenge himself artistically- see him on a wall near you.