Joel Davis
Tile artist. Sculptor.
My body of work encompasses everything from beauty and whimsy in everyday objects to statement pieces touching on social, political, and environmental issues. A recurring theme in my work is the duality that occurs within entropy and permanence. My passion is rooted both in using predominantly recycled materials and in the concept of marrying construction and fine art. I enjoy the effort of producing beauty out of materials that others have discarded. Sometimes, for me, the most fun is in scavenging for art materials in abandoned and long-forgotten places. It is the process of taking cast-off objects and transforming them into meaningful pieces that satiates my soul.
Joel Allen Davis is a prolific tile artist and sculptor from the South Valley in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is best known for his meticulous geometric, figurative, and abstract mosaic tile and stonework. His current body of work, however, is an amalgamation of found objects and distressed wood, forming anthropomorphic totems. He also is delighting in creating sad robot figures. Joel’s work has a strong sense of balance and achieves a feeling of movement within the ridged parameters of the materials, a skill he has honed throughout his 20+ years of creating art while working in the construction and fabrication industries. As of late, Joel is obsessed with repurposing discarded objects, and feels that the process of scavenging for materials and the emotions put forth during the creation of a piece are equally as important as a complex narrative. Often, the found object suggests the finished piece. He is incredibly proud of his most recent mosaic mural, Along the Acequia, at the South Valley Aquatic Center.