Gela Mikava

GELA MIKAVA — ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

GELA MIKAVA is a contemporary artist based in Tbilisi, Georgia, whose practice explores memory, inherited trauma, identity, and the psychological afterlife of the Soviet past.

Trained in architecture, Mikava combines architectural precision with artistic freedom, developing a distinctive visual language through painting, textile, collage, and mixed media. His work is created on salvaged Soviet-era cotton ceiling fabric, a material that once belonged to domestic interiors and now carries traces of lived history. By recovering, washing, layering, and transforming these discarded surfaces, he turns the material itself into an archive of memory and social experience.

Through his concept of Post-Socialist Radiation, Mikava examines how ideologies continue to shape contemporary life long after their apparent disappearance. His works investigate the tension between personal and collective memory, visible surfaces and concealed histories, and the persistence of the past within the present.

Mikava’s work has been presented internationally, including in London and the United States, and is represented in the Lester Marks Collection. His practice connects the specific material and historical experience of Georgia with broader questions of identity, displacement, and the enduring psychological effects of history.

View Available Works

• Ria keburia Foundation - Gerogia Tbilisi, 2022

• Georgian technical university , Master’s Degree, Faculty of Architecture, Urbanism and Design/specialization – Architect. - Georgia,2021 
• Georgian technical university , Bachelor’s Degree in Faculty of Architecture, Urbanism, and Design. 2019 – 2021- Georgian technical university/ Master’s Degree, Faculty of Architecture, Urbanism and Design/specialization – Architect. - Georgia,2019 

• https://medium.com/@contemporary2023/discover-the-contemporary-genius-gela-mikava-4c74aee072ba - Discover the Contemporary Genius: Gela Mikava