Daniel Davis

This book presents, through nearly one hundred stunning photographs, the unique ceramic art of Daniel Davis. Among the large-scale images of his work are interspersed smaller pages featuring his poetic writings.

Davis created a distinctive visual language derived from the world of local forms. He saw himself as part of a long chain of traditional Middle Eastern ceramics. His ceramic works were deeply influenced by the formal language of Middle Eastern potters, by Islamic architecture, and by burial structures found throughout the region.

The book also includes four texts. The first is an introductory essay by Daniel Davis’s life partner, Adina Bar-On. The second, by Shlomit Baumann—his close colleague and the curator of his retrospective exhibition We of the Earth at Benyamini Contemporary Ceramics Center—analyzes Davis’s work in the context of both local and global ceramic art. The third text is a conversation, moderated by Bar-On, with two of Davis’s close friends and colleagues, Raaya Stern and Eti Goren. The final contribution comes from his friend and colleague, Joan Marit Rosenstone.

In his review of Daniel Davis’s exhibition, Gilad Melzer wrote:
“This beautiful solo exhibition could serve as a proposal to transcend the boundaries of the medium and specific material in which Davis specialized, and to stage an exhibition that addresses the influences and presence of local architecture and design—Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and ancient—on the arts between the sea and the Jordan. Davis has secured for himself a place of honor.” (Haaretz, May 8, 2025).