Doll's Paradise (2024) Original Mixed-media Painting by Gela MIKAVA

Dolls' Paradise is a large-scale abstract figurative mixed-media painting by Gela Mikava, exploring identity, conformity, social roles and the boundaries imposed by contemporary society.

Doll-like human figures inhabit an apparently idealised environment — a “paradise” that gradually reveals itself as a frame, a box. Their fragmented bodies, individual colours and expressive forms create a tension between visual beauty and psychological confinement.

The work reflects on the roles and stereotypes that shape human behaviour and often prevent individuals from expressing their unique identities. Each figure appears to belong to the same constructed world, yet differences in gesture, form and colour suggest an inner resistance — a desire to remain individual within a system that encourages conformity.

In Dolls' Paradise, the doll becomes a metaphor for the contemporary human condition: shaped by expectations, assigned roles and invisible social boundaries.

The series invites a broader question: What are the “boxes” that define us, and how can we move beyond them?

Created with mixed media on cotton canvas, the work combines figurative imagery with contemporary abstraction and an expressive, layered surface.

Materials used:

Mixed media on cotton canvas

Details:

• Mixed-media painting on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 100 x 120 x 3cm (unframed)
• Signed on the front
• Style: Abstract
• Subject: Nudes and erotic