Dana Kavelina (b. 1995, Melitopol) is a Ukrainian artist currently based in Germany, having relocated from Kyiv and Lviv due to the war. She holds a degree in Graphics from the National Technical University of Ukraine.

Kavelina works primarily in animation and video, while also incorporating drawing, installation, and painting. Her practice critically examines military violence and war through a gendered lens, focusing on the victim as a political subject and exploring the distance between historical and personal trauma, memory, and misrepresentation.

Her video Letter to a Turtledove (2020) was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and featured in Signals: How Video Transformed the World as well as MoMA’s 2022 screening program Notes from the Ground. Her animated film Mark Tulip, Who Spoke with Flowers (2018) received the Special Jury Prize at the Odesa International Film Festival and the Grand Prix at the KROK festival. Letter to a Turtledove was also featured in e-flux’s “War and Cinema” program in 2020.

Kavelina’s work has been exhibited at institutions such as Kristianstad Kunsthalle (Sweden), the Kmytiv Museum, Closer Art Center (Kyiv), and Voloshyn Gallery (Kyiv).