About — Tornike Gognadze

Tornike Gognadze (b. 1999 in Tbilisi, GE, living and working in Frankfurt/Main, DE) has studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt/Main in 2021 - 2026, where he developed a sculptural language rooted in personal experience and critical reflection. From 2018 to 2020, Gognadze studied at the Visual Arts, Architecture & Design School (VA(A)DS) at Free University Tbilisi. In recent years, he has had several solo exhibitions, including Merry-Go-Round, Radar, Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster,DE (2026); Forever Spin, SCHLEUSE, Opelvillen Rüsselsheim, DE (2024) and The Dream, fffriedrich, Frankfurt/Main, DE (2023). In addition he realized the duo show Last song, Gallery 4710, Tbilisi, GE. His work has also been included in group exhibitions across Georgia, Germany, Lithuania and the UK, including presentations at the Liste art fair basel, the Tbilisi Art Fair, the HETEROTOPIA International London Art Festival, and the Tbilisi Online Biennale. He is a permanent participant in the Sculpture Park at the Ria Keburia Foundation in Kachreti, GE.

Tornike Gognadze is the founder of Communion, an artist-led community and 12-hour performance series established in Frankfurt/Main in 2022, through which he has published two books. In 2025, he co-founded Kunstverein Communion e.V.

Tornike Gognadze’s practice centers personal narratives and reimagined histories, using memory to create alternative versions of the past. Through this lens, he often engages with the emotional, social, and political landscapes. Working across sculpture, site-specific installation, drawing, photography, and film, he explores themes such as remembrance, fiction, the blurred relationship between frontstage and backstage, the act of performance, and the ways in which power structures and ideologies hide behind curtains. His exhibitions frequently incorporate architectural interventions that transform space and set the stage for presenting two-dimensional works. At times, his works behave as stage props, making the audience part of the play or even becoming players themselves.