"Currently my work is varied. I am still participating in work based on Maori and Pacific Island forms - for me this involves the disciplines of mind and technical skill, and allows my heritage to be expressed and evolve. I am also producing some body adornment, although mainly to wear on special occasions. These works are generally large necklaces with many components. Other styles of work are predominantly in hard stone. Recently my working process has relied more on my instincts. This involves letting go of the control I usually exercise when making work, experimenting a lot with textures and contrasts, and exploring ways to use tools to achieve new results. A big part of my creative process has always been to stretch myself...to find an edge where there is new energy, innovation and impact." - Chris Charteris 2004

"For Chris Charteris the past is not ours to own, yet he keeps going back to it, as though it was a nation: because the past for this artist is the beginning of life. The past is steeped in imagery and meaning, it comes to Charteris as a loosely structured innovation, it is a lifeline to what he creates now, giving shape, energy and inspiration to his ideas and motivation to make art.

To reach into the past he must travel, metaphorically, through air. To begin with, the air is unshaped. There is an eternity in the air, a feeling that a new metaphor is born, yet among all the meanings there is also a need to say: I can modernize that. Charteris has done that, as only a master can do with reverence, feeling and respect." - John Pule

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

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2004	Solo exhibition, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Solo exhibition, G2 FHE Galleries, Auckland Group exhibition, G2 FHE Galleries, Auckland
2003	Toki, FHE Gallery, Auckland Man group show, Fingers, Auckland Poutini, FHE Gallery, Auckland Fusion, Australian National University Centre for Cross-Cultural Research Symposium Passion flower group show, Lure, Dunedin
2002	Jewelled: Adornments from across the Pacific, Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington Can you be more Pacific please, Lopdell House Gallery, Waitakere Collaboration with nature, FHE Gallery, Auckland Holy Stones, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Group show, Fingers, Auckland
2001	Autumn exhibition, FHE Gallery, Auckland Jade exhibition, Masterworks Gallery, Auckland Group show, Fingers, Auckland One Noble Savage Two Dusky Maidens, Brisbane City Art Gallery Grammar: Subjects and Objects, 4th NZ Jewellery Biennial, Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt Working with the elements, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Waka project, JB Were, Royal & Sunalliance Centre
2000	Turangawaewae, 3rd NZ Jewellery Biennial, Auckland Museum One Noble Savage Two Dusky Maidens, Lure, Dunedin; Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch; New Works Gallery, Wellington Summer, Autumn and Winter exhibitions, FHE Gallery, Auckland Collaborative exhibition with Alicia Courtney, FHE Gallery, Auckland Group show, Fingers, Auckland Pin up, Group show, Masterworks Gallery, Auckland
1999	One Noble Savage Two Dusky Maidens, Judith Anderson Gallery, Auckland Summer, Autumn and Winter exhibitions, FHE Gallery, Auckland 925, 25th Anniversary exhibition, Fingers, Auckland Neckware, Masterworks Gallery, Auckland Turangawaewae, 3rd NZ Jewellery Biennial, Dunedin Public Art Gallery; Hawkes Bay Exhibition Centre
1998	Turangawaewae, 3rd NZ Jewellery Biennial, Dowse Art Museum, Wellington Wero, Archill Gallery, Auckland Summer exhibition, FHE Gallery, Auckland Fingers, Auckland
1987	Exhibited extensively in NZ including Taonga Hou and the Otago Museum Real Craft Exhibitions

SELECTED WORK EXPERIENCE

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1995	Established Te Whare Whakairo Gallery and Workshop, Dunedin
1986-96	Carving Tutor: Northland, Otago and Southland Polytechnics, and Dunedin College of Education Araiteuru Kokiri Youth Learning Centre
1985	Initial beginning of carving career Te Rarawa Marae, Northland, traditional and contemporary Maori carving in wood and bone. (Tutors Ross Gregory, Richard Renick and Don Jack).