Opening of the fifth edition of the annual project a—s—t—r—a open - a series of group exhibitions, during which the gallery space becomes a place of institutional debut, testing of new ideas and a platform for artistic dialog. The a—s—t—r—a open exhibitions are held twice a year, in winter and summer.

As part of this initiative, a—s—t—r—a continues the main line of its activities — discovering new names, experimenting and testing hypotheses. The gallery does not set any formal restrictions, which within the framework of the open-call gives an opportunity to gather interesting combinations of participants and present both absolutely unknown names and show works by established authors.

Sergey Boyarintsev, Boris Bragin, Alexander Gordeev, Alyosha Geld, Anastasia Geraskina, Marina Glebova, Marina Grekova, Anna Demina, Yulia Dibrova, Alyona Zhandarova, Dmitry Zakunov, Katitsiya, Katya na khate, Maria Katyanova, Alina Koryakina, Katya Kosova, Anna Lageda, Vera Latysheva, Anton Lytaev, Olga Menzhiliy, Anastasia Myachina, Julia Nemova, Ekaterina Nikitina, Igor Nikolaenko, Marina Niko, Alexander Platonov, Lyubov Remizova, Vika Ros, Viktor Skopets, Lena Taganova, Alexandra Timasheva, Alexei Frolov-Bagreev, Lena Holkina, Donna Tserne, Timur Etot, Yuri Yushkin, Katya Yanova, AEVGENIK, AI Artist Leyla Karipova, Danil Danot, GALOLBO, Grisha Danunaher, sashonichka.

With this project the gallery shows that there is a conditional “elevator” in the art market and that working on one's career, artist statement and portfolio makes sense and gives concrete results: exposure to a large audience, sales and for some authors - further full-fledged cooperation with a-s-t-r-a gallery.

The fifth edition of a—s—t—r—a open is realized in co-authorship with guest curators - the team of newnow (Margo Makarova and Uley Savich). The main idea behind a—s—t—r—a open vol.5 is to “turn inside out” the process behind the selection and formation of a new pool of authors. The gallery's exhibition space will take the form of a sketchbook for pins, sketches, notes: how the team thinks, what they pay attention to, what meanings the artists are addressing, what the stats are made of, what comes to the forefront and what remains behind the brackets. This is a project about how the field of research is narrowed down to a few names in a limited space, and the curator becomes an interlocutor.

For the founder of a—s—t—r—a gallery, Alina Kryukova, it is fundamental to keep the gallery's activities faithful to the logic chosen when opening the permanent space — to be a place of expanding the horizon of possibilities for as many interested people as possible. That is why at each exhibition the team tries to show as many names as possible, despite the limited space of the gallery.

The a—s—t—r—a open vol.5 also planned a parallel program including artistic action practices and talks with experts.