About Us
Оpen Group was founded in August 2012 in Lviv by six artists: Yuriy Biley, Anton Varga, Oleg Perkovsky, Pavlo Kovach, Stanislav Turina, Yevgen Samborsky.
THE PERMANENT MEMBERS OF THE GROUP ARE (since 2019): Yuriy Biley (based in Wroclaw / Berlin), Pavlo Kovach (based in Lviv), Anton Varga (based in New York / Poznań).
Placing the notion of “collective work” at the core of their practice, the group has operated through collaborative projects involving people from diverse fields over specific periods of time. Their works are often structured as what they term “open situations”―experimental explorations of the interaction between people and particular spaces. As both visual artists and curators, the trio continues to investigate the dynamics of contemporary visual culture through an experimental lens. Their practice deeply engages with socio-political realities of the present, transforming the intersection of personal experience and pressing global issues into a variety of visual forms.
Group members have been running independent art spaces, such as Detenpyla Gallery (since 2011) or Еfremova26 Gallery (2013-2014) in Lviv, Ukraine.
Open Group won the Special Distinction of the PinchukArtCentre Prize in 2013, and the Main Prize in 2015. Their works were featured at the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale. In 2016, the Open Group curated the show entitled "Dependence Degree, Collective Practices of Young Ukrainian Artists 2000-2016" (Wrocław, Poland). In 2017, the group’s work was presented in frames of the Future Generation Art Prize@Venice 2017 (collateral events of the 57th Venice Biennale). In 2019, the Open Group was the curator of the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 58th La Biennale di Venezia. In 2024, the Open Group will represent Poland at the 60th Venice Biennale with the project "Repeat after me II".
Open Group works have been exhibited in several institutions like: High Line, New York, USA; Bozar, Brussel, Belgium; Zachęta — National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland; Serlachius, Mänttä, Finland; Salzgasse Albertinum in Dresden, Germany; 8th Yokohama Triennale, Japan; Ludwig Museum Budapest, Hungary; Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe, Germany; National Art Museum Kyiv, Ukraine; Museum De Fundatie in Zwolle, Netherlands; Belvedere 21 Museum of Contemporary Art in Wien, Austria; Labirynt gallery Lublin, Poland; Miguel Abreu Gallery in New York, USA; PinchukArtCentre in Kyiv, Ukraine; Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv, Ukraine; 4th Autostrada Biennale Prizren, Kosovo; The School of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial, Ukraine; ARS AEVI the Museum of contemporary art in Sarajevo, amongst others.
СV
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2026 (upcoming) Voloshyn Gallery, Miami, USA.
2026 The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland.
2026 Repeat after me 2024, Telegraph Gallery, Olomouc, Czech Republic.
2026 #5 Pop-up / Open Group. Repeat After Me II, Flandernbunker, Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Germany.
2026 Repeat after me II, Nguyen Wahed, London, United Kingdom.
2025 Years, Tenuta Dello Scompiglio in Lucca, Italy.
2025 Repeat after me II, BWA Kalisz, Poland.
2025 Certain Future Evidence, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2025 Repeat After Me 2024, High Line, NY, USA.
2025 Repeat after me II, Krupa Art Foundation, Wroclaw, Poland.
2025 Untitled and Repeat after me II, 601space in New York, USA.
2025 Repeat After Me II, Serlachius, Mänttä, Finland.
2025 Repeat After Me II, Zachęta — National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland.
2024 Repeat After Me 2024, Museum on Opener festival, Gdynia, Poland.
2024 Repeat After Me II, Polish Pavilion at the 60 th International Art Exhibition in Venice.
2023 Open Group / Repeat After Me, Kulturdrogerie, Wien, Austria.
2023 Open Group: We Were Somewhere Among You, HB Station, Guangzhou, Сhina.
2022 Repeat After Me, Labirynt gallery, Lublin, Poland.
2022 Repeat After Me by Open Group, Theater of Hopes and Expectations, Düsseldorf, Germany.
2020 Biography, with support of Galeria Labirynt, Lublin, Poland.
2017 Open Group. Due to the circumstances, Аrsenal gallery, Białystok, Poland.
2016 The same places, Korydor gallery, Uzhhorod, Ukraine.
2015 1000-km View. Part I, The School of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial, Closer art centre, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2014 Ars longa, vita brevis / documentation, Dzyga gallery, Lviv, Ukraine.
2014 Biography, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2014 Where is my gallery?, Karlin Studio, Praha, Czech Republic.
2013 Place, Closer art centre, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2013 Between us, Bottega gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine.
SELECTED BIENNIALS:
2025 5th OFF-Biennale Budapest, Hungary.
2024 Wild Grass: Our Lives, 8th Yokohama Triennale, Japan.
2023 All Images Will Disappear, One Day, 4th Autostrada Biennale Prizren, Kosovo.
2019 The Shadow of Dream* cast upon Giardini della Biennale, Pavilion of Ukraine at the 58 th International Art Exhibition in Venice - La Biennale di Venezia.
2017 Future Generation Art Prize @ Venice 2017, collateral events of the 57th Venice International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
2015 Hope!, Pavilion of Ukraine at the 56 th International Art Exhibition in Venice – La Biennale di Venezia.
2015 Dispossession, organizer Wrocław European Capital of Culture 2016, collateral events of the 56th Venice International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
2015 1000-km View. Part I, The School of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial, Closer art centre, Kyiv, Ukraine.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS & FESTIVALS:
2027 (upcoming) "Where Do I Belong?" Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, United Kingdom.
2027 (upcoming) "The Age of Unreason", Malmö Art Museum, Sweden.
2026 (upcoming) "Sound Has Always Been Alive", Buk Seoul Museum of Art, Korea.
2026 (upcoming) "Earth and Blood", CSW Torun, Poland.
2026 (upcoming) "Metaxy: Between Destruction and Reconstruction", Academy of Arts Berlin, Germany.
2026 (upcoming) Landskrona Foto Festival 2026, Sweden.
2026 (upcoming) Festival, Centrale Fies, Dro, Italy.
2026 (upcoming) Contexts Festival, Sokołowsko, Poland.
2026 "Poems of Unrest", Haus für Medienkunst in Oldenburg, Germany.
2026 FERTILE RESISTANCE: KADIST Collection-in-Residence, Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.
2026 "Wars and Us" in the Landesmuseum extension in Zurich, Swiss National Museum.
2026 "Etat bruit", Konschthal Esch, Luxembourg.
2026 One World film Festival, cooperates with the Month of Ukraine, Prague, Czech Republic.
2025 Millennium Film Journal 82 "Real Life" (Screening), Close-Up Film Centre, London, UK.
2025 Millennium Film Journal 82 "Real Life" (Screening), Anthology Film Archives, New York, USA.
2025 Festival Tanznacht 2025, Berlin, Germany.
2025 "Keeping Time", KADIST, San Francisco, USA.
2025 Cēsis Art Festival, Latvia.
2025 long night of the arts Augsburg, Germany.
2025 Forum on European Culture in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2025 "We Connect, We Occupy", Jeonnam Museum of Art in Korea.
2025 Galerie Adlershof, Berlin, Germany.
2025 DIGITHALIA – Festival für virtuelle Theaterformen Graz, Austria.
2025 "Familiar Strangers", Bozar, Brussel, Belgium.
2025 FIPADOC a non-fiction festival in Biarritz, France.
2025 "Refugees Welcome Artists for Refugees", Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland.
2024 Next Level Festival in Dortmund, Germany.
2024 "Structures of Reciprocity", Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv, Ukraine.
2024 Prix Ars Electronica Exhibition 2024, Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Austria.
2024 Listening for Traces: Conflict, Sound and Memory, Leaf Tower, Al Reem Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
2024 Forever and a Day, Melkweg Expo, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2023 Our Years, Our Words, Our Losses, Our Search, Our Us, Jam Factory Art Center, Lviv, Ukraine.
2023 A short story of tension, resistance and love, Art Station Dubulti, Jūrmala, Latvia.
2023 Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories: Ukrainian Art 1912–2023, Museum De Fundatie in Zwolle, Netherlands.
2023 About the loss of, Lviv Municipal Art Center, Ukraine.
2023 How River Roars, Krupa Art Foundation, Wrocław, Poland.
2023 Über das Neue, Belvedere 21 Museum of Contemporary Art, Wien, Austria.
2023 Talking about Myself? Talking about You, Voloshyn Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2023 When the Inconceivable Takes Form, Cite International des arts, Paris, France.
2023 Unexpected Care, Institute of Contemporary Art – Sofia, Bulgaria.
2023 Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories. Ukrainian Art 1912–2023, Salzgasse Albertinum, Dresden, Germany.
2023 Camera Obscura, Voloshyn Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2023 SOLIDARITY PROJECT, in The Naked Room, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2023 SONYA Art for Ukrainian AID, Los Angeles, USA.
2023 ARS AEVI NUCLEUS KYIV, ARS AEVI the Museum of contemporary art in Sarajevo.
2023 Fruits of Wrath – Attempt at comprehension: Ukraine, Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin, Germany.
2022 "Stolen Sun", Miguel Abreu gallery, New York, USA.
2021 Ukraine. A different angle on neighbourhood, International Cultural Centre, Kraków, Poland.
2021 Pizza Piennale, art space "The always fresh", New York, USA.
2021 Daddy, Helmet's pressing. Contemporary art from NAMU's collection, National Art Museum, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2020 Contexts Festival, Sokołowsko, Poland.
2019 Let’s Talk About Modernity, Jam Factory Art Center, Lviv, Ukraine.
2019 Ukrainian Cross-Section. Rituals of Transition, Lviv, Ukraine.
2019 Niefestiwal City and Art, ŁAŹNIA Center for Contemporary Art, Gdańsk, Poland.
2019 Dear Aeneas. Contemporary artists alone with the past, Ermilov Center, Kharkiv, Ukraine.
2018 Somewhere now, Labirynt gallery, Lublin, Poland.
2018 Prostir Pokordonnya, XXI Land Art Festival, Mogrytsya, Sumy region, Ukraine.
2018 Permanent Revolution, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary.
2017 Attention! Border, Аrsenal gallery, Białystok, and Labirynt gallery, Lublin, Poland.
2017 Future Generation Art Prize shortlist exhibition, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2016 NONSTOPMEDIA 8, Kharkov Municipal Gallery, Kharkiv, Ukraine.
2016 Revision, Gary Bowman Gallery, Lviv, Ukraine.
2016 Imagination. Reality, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2016 Indentity. Behind the curtain of uncertainty, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2015 PinchukArtCentre Prize shortlist exhibition, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2015 Pavshyno Kunstverein, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany.
2015 Air sn Zuiddoost, CBK Zuidoost, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2015 36 shots in the form of bright blue balloons that open up in the skies into splendid green-violet peonies, art center Ya Gallery in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine.
2014 Zahoplennya, Izolyatsia Foundation, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2014 VI long-term project, Temporary exhibition, Korydor gallery, Uzhhorod, Ukraine.
2014 If only flies saw the show, does it mean that it actually happened?, Another Vacant Space, Berlin, Germany.
2013 Pinchuk Art Centre Prize shortlist exhibition, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2012 Contemporary Art Week, Lviv, Ukraine.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
2023 Marta Czyz & Joanna Warsza, The positive negativity of sculpture, Public Matters. Zeitgenössische Skulptur, p.202-211.
2022 Kateryna, Iakovlenko: OPEN GROUP: “Repeat after me” at Galeria Labirynt, Magazine Blok, Warsaw, Poland.
2019 Alisa, Lozhkina: Between War And Rave. Ukrainian Art After The 2013 Revolution, Magazine Blok, Warsaw, Poland.
2017 Jana, Shostak: Total Viewer, Notes na 6 tygodni, Issue #114, November, Warsaw, Poland p.118-129.
2017 Waldemar, Tatarczuk: Open Group. Due to Circumstances, at the Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, Magazine Szum, Warsaw, Poland.
2017 Valeriya, Lukyanecz & Kateryna, Nosko: ‘Where is the curatorial, IST Publishing, Kyiv, Ukraine, p. 18-38.
2017 Bjorn, Geldhof & Anna, Smolak: "Future Generation Art Prize @ Venice 2017", 57th Venice International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, Italy, p. 22-23 (exhibition catalogue).
2016 Indentity. Behind the curtain of uncertainty, Latvian Center for Contemporary Art, p. 112-113 (exhibition catalogue).
2016 Protocollum, Global Perspectives on Visual Vocabulary 2015/16, Berlin, Germany, p.275-277.
2016 Ukrainian Cross-Section, Wrocław European Capital of Culture 2016, Wroclaw, Poland, p.92-95 (exhibition catalogue).
2016 Daria, Skok: Group of dependence of the antisystem. Dependence degreein gallery Awangarda, BWA, Magazine Szum, Warsaw, Poland.
2015 Bjorn, Geldhof: Hope!, Ukraine National Pavilion at the 56 th International Art Exhibition in Venice - La Biennale di Venezia, Italy, p. 22-23 (exhibition catalogue).
2015 Deys of Performance art in Lviv 2008-2014, lviv, Ukraine, p. 142-143 (exhibition catalogue).
SELECTED MONOGRAPHIES AND CATALOGUES:
2025 Repeat after me, exhibition catalogue. Language: English, Ukrainian, Finnish. 144 pages. 500 copies. ISBN: 978-952-7441-82-4. © Open Group, writers, translators, photographers, Gosta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation and Parvs Publishing Ltd, 2025.
2024 Repeat after me II, exhibition catalogue. Language: English. 152 pages. 1000 copies. ISBN: 978-83-66979-23-9. Polish Pavilion at the 60 th International Art Exhibition in Venice, © Zachęta — National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, 2024.
2019 The Shadow of Dream* cast upon Giardini della Biennale, exhibition catalogue. Language: Ukrainian, English. Pavilion of Ukraine at the 58th International Art Exhibition in Venice, © Open Group 2019, Kyiv, Ukraine 4000 copies.
2016 Open Group: Dependence Degree, Collective Practices of Young Ukrainian Artists
2000-2016, exhibition catalogue. Language: Ukrainian, Polish, English. © Biuro Festiwalowe Impart 2016, Wrocław, Poland, ISBN: 978-83-946924-8-3, 500 copies.
CURATORIAL PROJECTS:
2019 Just do not tell Slava yet, Museum of Contemporary Art, Kherson, Ukraine.
2016 Dependence Degree, Collective Practices of Young Ukrainian Artists 2000-2016, European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016, Awangarda gallery BWA Wrocław, Poland.
2013 One of the N*, Detenpyla gallery, Lviv, Ukraine.
AWARDS:
2025 Finalist of the Kazimir Malevich Art Prize 2025, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2025 Award O!Lśnienia, in the category Visual arts, Warsaw, Poland.
2024 Honorary Mention, in the category "Interactive Art +", Prix Ars Electronica 2024, Linz, Austria.
2020 Special Mention "Allegro Prize", Warsaw, Poland.
2015 Awarded with the MainPrize PinchukArtCentre Prize, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2013 Awarded with the first Special Prize Pinchuk Art Centre, Kyiv, Ukraine.
RESIDENCIES:
2023 Residency Kulturdrogerie association, Wien, Austria.
2020 Residency Meet the Neighbours. With support of Galeria Labirynt, Lublin, Poland.
2018 Katowice Street Art AiR, Katowice, Poland.
2017 FACE Residency, Lavra gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2015 OPEN ATELIERS ZO artist in residence, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2014 Futura, Karlin Studio, Praha, Czech Republic.
2012 Granny Hall, Samiylychi, Volyn region, Ukraine.
KADIST, Paris, France and San Francisco, USA.
ARS AEVI, the Museum of contemporary art in Sarajevo.MOCA NGO/ Ukrainian Museum of Contemporary Art (UMCA) collection, Kyiv, Ukraine.
Labirynt gallery, Lublin, Poland. (deposit)
National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv.
SHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF THE PARTICIPANTS:
YURIY BILEY – born in 1988 in Uzhhorod (Zakarpatian region, Ukraine). In 2011 graduated from the National Academy of Arts in Lviv. Since 2015 he lives and works in Wroclaw (Poland). Since 2022, he has been living between Berlin and Wroclaw. Visual artist and curator.
Co-founder of the Open Group (since 2012). Biley is also the curator and co-founder of two galleries, Detenpyla – Lviv, Ukraine (since 2011) and NEW GOLDEN – Wroclaw, Poland (since 2019).
The artist's practice focuses on themes related to the experience of emigration. Most of his projects are based on personal experiences, which he constructs through borrowings and quotations. He creates installations, collages and works of a post-artistic character. Beyond the theme of emigration, the works are a reflection to current social and political events. They contain images of a world lacking today's fundamental problems. He is interested in text and the influence of language as a cultural factor. In his announcements we read a civic attitude and constant reference to the motifs of the author's identity. The artist's works are in the collections of the Stadtmuseum in Berlin (Germany); Labirynt gallery, Lublin (Poland); Museum of Contemporary Art in Kherson (Ukraine) and in private collections.
ANTON VARGA – born in 1989 in Uzhhorod (Zakarpatian region, Ukraine). Studied at Zakarpatia Art Institute (BFA, 2010), Kharkiv State academy of Art & Design (Specialist, 2012), Rutgers University (MFA, 2024). Co-founder of the Open Group (since 2012). Since 2015 he has lived and worked in New York, Uzhhorod, and Poznan.
Anton Varga in his individual practice deals with getting through. His recent interests are located in the area of disappearing image, temporary image, archival image, scrolling image, pictorial image, video image, celluloid film image. Lately he has been spending time thinking about parking lot light, institutional light, light in youtube videos, hauntology of light, politics of light, Ultimate Master, Arbeiten, war consumption, Kojevian The End of History, Socialist realism, pain, painting, paradox, immortality, nostalgia, dialogues, violence, collaboration, hope.
PAVLO KOVACH – born in 1987 in Uzhhorod (Zakarpatian region, Ukraine). He studied at the Uzhgorod Art College name of A.Erdeli and at the Lviv National Academy of Arts, where he received his BA and MA degrees. Lives and works in Lviv, Ukraine.
Co-founder of “Detenpyla gallery” and “Еfremova26 gallery” artist-run spaces, from 2022 hi is the curator of the Lviv Municipal Art Center, also Kovach is a co-founder and participant of an Open Group artistic collective.
Pavlo Kovach in his artistic practice is interested in the creation of a mythological image of a real person. The concept of his work lays in the statement that the basis of the person's image lies in the real-life story that the artist develops and works with. Pavlo Kovach fills a fictional character`s life with stories, artifacts, and artworks, which have been produced, or may have been produced, by this particular character.