Chestnut and the universe

From February 13 until May 10 Zuzeum Art Museum will present the first institutional solo exhibition Chestnut and the universe 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 the works 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’ visual language is based on simple, expressive forms arranged in bright, clearly structured compositions. A warm sense of irony sometimes slips into his hand, appearing in light-hearted media messages, as well as stripping complex, expansive ideas of their rhetorical heaviness. In this exhibition, illustration becomes an instrument for speaking both about the visual environment of our everyday lives and about quieter, harder-to-define yet deeply significant inner states and quests.