“Distances” Jānis Avotiņš solo exhibition

From 30 May to 23 August 2026, the Art Museum RIGA BOURSE will host a solo exhibition by the artist Jānis Avotiņš.  The concept of the exhibition has developed in response to the architectural aesthetics of the Art Museum RIGA BOURSE. The museum’s Great Exhibition Hall, with its fully uncovered windows flooded with daylight and views onto the various perspectives of Old Riga, evokes the most magnificent Western European metro and railway stations built in eclectic and neoclassical styles. This has prompted the artist to continue investigating, in painting, the figure–space relationships characteristic of his work, concentrating the tensions of time, history, and politics within the charged, intimate surface of the canvas. Jānis Avotiņš received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Art Academy of Latvia and completed a traineeship at the University of Manchester. Since 2004, he has regularly held solo exhibitions internationally, collaborating with IBID Gallery in London and Los Angeles, Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle in Munich, Vera Munro Gallery in Hamburg, and AKINCI Gallery in Amsterdam, while also participating in numerous international group exhibitions. The artist’s works are included in the collection of the Latvian National Museum of Art as well as in significant private collections across Europe, the United States, and Japan, including those of prominent collectors François Pinault, Charles Saatchi, Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, and the Rubell Family Collection. Avotiņš has received several awards, among them the Jean-François Prat Art Prize in Paris.

Artist: Jānis Avotiņš

Curator: Vita Birzaka

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About museum

The Art Museum RIGA BOURSE positions itself as a place for cultural exchange, where excellence is more important than the artist’s national origin. With its activities, the museum forms a bridge between Asia, Europe and America, offering a dialogue amongst expressions of classical and contemporary art in its displays and exhibitions.  The museum's permanent display consists of Riga’s foreign art collections, which were accumulated over the centuries and now are part of the collection of the Latvian National Museum of Art. The Art Museum RIGA BOURSE is an architectural monument of national importance. It was built between 1852 and 1855 in the style of a Venetian Renaissance palazzo symbolising wealth and plenitude. The building was designed by the St. Petersburg architect of German descent – Harald Julius von Bosse (1812–1894).

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Admission ticket to the exhibition according to the museum’s price list. For annual pass holders, participation in the event is free of charge.