Chris Weaver

Chris Weaver (born 1956) is a New Zealand potter. He has exhibited widely in New Zealand and internationally, winning many awards. His work is held in public museum collections in New Zealand, Australia and Japan.

Life Weaver was born in Te Awamutu, New Zealand in 1956. In 1975, he graduated from Otago Polytechnic with a Diploma in Fine and Applied Arts, completing a Ceramics Certificate the following year.

Upon graduating Weaver moved to the West Coast, initially taking short-term jobs such as sphagnum moss harvesting to support his family while he built a studio at Kaniere, near Hokitika. After trying but not enjoying commercial pottery, he began a full-time career as an artisan potter. Weaver’s key influences include the work of his teacher Michael Trumic, potter Hans Coper, sculptors Jean Arp and Henry Moore, Scandinavian design and Japanese craft traditions. Douglas Lloyd Jenkins called this series "a seminal work of twentieth-century New Zealand design…" He wrote, "at a time when New Zealanders, both Pakeha and Maori, were re-examining their joint colonial past and not always liking what they saw, Weaver's teapot seemed to reach back into the past and pull out something unexpected, something stoic, and something symbolic of survival and eventual revival." Weaver was inspired by an old cast-iton flatiron he discovered in the hot water cupboard while cleaning out his grandmother's house. The handle felt so comfortable that he made that same night a semi-matte black teapot – echoing the flatiron – with a rimu handle, the first work in his series. It went on to win several awards, which led to galleries approaching him for more work, freeing him from having to "go around hawking" his wares. In 2015 Weaver was admitted to the International Academy of Ceramics in Geneva. 2018 Otago Polytechnic Distinguished Alumni Award

Collections Chris Weaver’s work is held in the collections of the Auckland War Memorial Museum; The Dowse Art Museum; the Suter Art Gallery, Nelson; Canterbury Museum; Hawkes Bay Museum, Napier; Shepparton Art Museum, Australia; and Mino Ceramic Park in Tajimi, Japan.