The new mural on California Ave. tells some quintessentially Reno stories
The leaders of ABG Art Group—an Oakland, Calif., nonprofit that consults on and produces large art installations—have a knack for getting their finger on the pulse of a given community’s tastes. You can tell just by looking at their bold outdoor paintings in Bay Area locales like Oakland’s Chinatown, Downtown Oakland and Mill Valley.
Last week, they completed their first-ever mural in Reno.
It’s nearly 1,000 feet long, stretching down the corrugated cement wall on California Avenue, near where it meets Keystone Avenue, on the slope that connects the Reno High School neighborhood with the Old Southwest.
“I think that Reno has a strong sense of identity, and they definitely wanted (the wall) to reflect their values, their vision, their sense of culture,” said the project’s lead artist, who introduced himself as Sorell Raino-Tsui and also goes by his Chinese name, Tsui Xiao Rui.
To help determine the mural’s content, the City of Reno Arts + Culture team surveyed locals and hosted two in-person workshops in 2025. Representatives from the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony also were consulted on some design elements, according to a city of Reno press release.
“The community had a lot to say,” said Raino-Tsui. “They definitely wanted to voice their opinion. They had strong opinions.”
People requested elements such as a sense of calm, something not too busy, and images of our natural surroundings, he said.
“We tried our best to do that, not to be too jarring, for it to have a soothing, kind of natural feel, and I feel like we’ve accomplished that in this piece,” said Raino-Tsui.
The imagery is split up into panels—some filled with squares and quarter circles in low-key, cheery hues like creamsicle, olive, mint and milk chocolate.
“I wanted to tell a color theory story, then also a linear story that’s a bit historical and moves from day to night,” he said.
Other panels depict an Indigenous female dancer, a cowboy riding beneath a low-hanging sun, a steam train, a mountain bluebird (Nevada’s state bird), the abstracted Sierra Nevada peaks from Reno’s city flag, a black bear and a view of downtown neon at night, circa 1960s.
Raino-Tsui’s co-designer for the project was “Elliot” Trent Thompson, and four other artists helped with the painting—Patric Oneill from Oakland, Louka Lannois from France, Earnest Doty from Tennessee, and Kalani Ware, who is from the San Francisco Bay Area and lives in the Netherlands.
Military families get free admission at museums all summer
Did you ever imagine that Pete Hegseth’s team would be part of an effort to help families access art and culture experiences? No, I have not taken up satire; this is real.
Thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts and Blue Star Families, in collaboration with the Department of Defense (unofficially rebranded in 2025 as the “Department of War”), active military members and their families get free admission to museums in every state, including 16 in Nevada, for the summer.
Locally, this includes The Discovery, the Nevada Museum of Art and the Nevada Historical Society in Reno; the Sparks Heritage Museum in Sparks; and the Nevada State Museum and Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City.
The program began on Armed Forces Day, Saturday, May 16, and will continue through Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 7. Free admission is available to those currently serving in the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard, as well as members of the Reserves, National Guard, U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and NOAA Commissioned Corps, plus up to five family members per household.
You can find the full list of participating museums at www.arts.gov/initiatives/blue-star-museums.
Holland Project’s May 23 Mini-Mart will be a nexus of local creativity
If you’ve been reading the RN&R’s music coverage as of late, you have noticed that we mention the Holland Project at least once or twice a month—maybe more when you factor in our 11 Days a Week events newsletter. Is it rampant favoritism? Actually, no.
While we do try to spread the coverage around and discuss as many venues as possible, we keep coming back to HP, because this homegrown, now-almost-20-year-old institution is legitimately the town’s most prolific source for local music, arts, art education and all things related. (It is also the all-ages venue about which we Gen Xers most often say, “I wish there was something like that around when I was a teenager!”) While HP’s offerings for teens are plentiful, it also hosts a chock-full calendar of music and art for fans of all ages and many stripes.
A few times a year, HP busts out a big, open-house-type celebration of the type that I recommend if you’re new in town or otherwise trying to get your local-art bearings. These events give you a great cross-section of the creative goings-on in town, all in one shot.
This Saturday, May 23, Holland presents its annual Mini-Mart, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at its own digs at 140 Vesta St., and at the adjacent Laika Press, Tooti Frooti across the street, and The Radical Cat bookstore a block away.
It’s partially what it sounds like—a market featuring dozens of local artists who work in prints, zines and DIY publishing—and it’s also an event where you can check out a new art medium or two for free, and connect with groups like Family Soup Mutual Aid and Trans Support Reno.
And well, one more reason I can’t not mention Mini-Mart is because you’ll be able to meet some of the RN&R’s own contributors there—2017 Best of Northern Nevada illustrator Kate O’Hara; 2024 Best of Northern Nevada illustrator Nathaniel Benjamin; and Max Stone, a local poet who writes about books and authors for us, presenting an installment of his Landline Poetry series on Holland’s outdoor stage at 1 p.m.
The complete details are at hollandreno.org/mini-mart.