Roberts Rurāns' solo exhibition Chest-nut and the Uni-verse

Zuzeum is pleased to present the first institutional solo exhibition by the illustrator and artist Roberts Rūrāns. The exhibition reveals the wide range of the artist’s practice. From bold, internationally recognised illustrations to personal, spiritual paintings, in which a contemporary visual language intertwines with motifs from the Christian tradition.

The exhibition brings together more than 80 works created between 2018 and 2025. They are arranged in sequences – from playfully ordinary, secular themes and commercial commissions to more personal, spiritual explorations, in which the fusion of tradition and contemporaneity is essential, as are playfulness in image-making and the embedding of the sacred in bodies – in their movements and gestures. 

Roberts Rūrāns is an illustrator and artist, a graduate of the Art Academy of Latvia, who shaped his professional path through hands-on experience – by collaborating with cultural institutions, media outlets and brands in Latvia and abroad. His work can be seen in projects for The New York Times, The Olympics, Hermes, airBaltic, NATO, and others, where an illustration becomes a clear and easily readable visual language between art and design.