Son of a traditional Komi hunter and trapper, Pasha Mikushev (officially Pavel) was born in Syktyvkar – the capital of the republic of Komi – in 1962, being the youngest son of the family`s seven children. As the Komi tradition provides that the family emblem is inherited by the youngest son, so the first letter of Mikushev`s signature on his paintings – Pasha – is a stylisation of the inherited symbol.

Pasha Mikushev graduated from an art college in the republic of Komi in 1990. He works as a teacher in a grammar school with a specialisation in the fine arts. Mikushev is the head artist of the Komi magazine on the arts ART. Co-designer of the encyclopaedia of Komi mythology with Yuri Lisovski, with whom he shares a studio and appears on exhibitions. Mikushev´s works have been exhibited in his homeland as well as in other Finno-Ugric countries, Estonia included.

The works of Pasha Mikushev belong to the post-Perestroika period of awakening period in Finno-Ugric art.
The abundance of mythological content and the frequent use of old symbols, patterns or signs based on ethnic traditions is common in to contemporary largely ethno-futurist Komi, Mari, Udmurt and Erzya art. Pasha Mikushev has been inspired by the first Komi alphabet, created by the Russian Orthodox missionary St. Stephen of Perm. But the far-reaching memory of these paintings is accompanied by a very modern spirit.