GELA MIKAVA (b. 1995, Tbilisi, Georgia) is a contemporary visual artist whose work explores the enduring effects of post-socialist trauma on individual and collective memory. With a background in architecture (BA and MA, Georgian Technical University), MIKAVA constructs complex, emotionally charged compositions that navigate the spaces between ideology, identity, and abandonment.

His practice is deeply material-based. He frequently works on Soviet-era textiles, especially biaz—a mass-produced fabric from the socialist period that once occupied every home. These fabrics are not neutral surfaces; they carry personal and political histories. By using them as a painterly base, MIKAVA transforms overlooked domestic materials into witnesses of systemic collapse and social fragmentation.

Recurring themes in his work include isolation, invisibility, displacement, and the psychological remnants of authoritarian regimes. Whether painting stray dogs, fragmented human bodies, or decadent symbols of consumerist desire, MIKAVA exposes the emotional residues left behind by collapsing ideologies and the urgent need to reclaim human empathy in their aftermath.

His paintings have been featured in online and physical exhibitions across Europe and are part of a growing movement of post-Soviet and post-traumatic expression in contemporary art.