He received his BA in Cinematography from Richmond College]] CUNY in 1972 and his MFA in Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1975.
As a fine artist Cava has exhibited paintings, drawings and photo-based works from 1976 to the present in galleries and museums in the United States and Europe.
His work has been showcased in numerous publications including Still Modern After All These Years, Chrysler Museum, Eyemazing Magazine and Invisible City: Philadelphia and the Vernacular Avant-garde.
In fall 2005, the German publisher Galerie Vevais released Children of Adam, a volume combining Cava’s photo-based art with Walt Whitman’s erotic poetry.
His gallery exhibited work by various artists including Robert Mapplethorpe, Ray Metzker, Joel-Peter Witkin, Lynn Davis, Jock Sturges, Irving Penn, Sean Scully, Jannis Kounellis, Mel Bochner, and Richard Misrach.