Roski Student Awarded Artist of Winter 2023  

The world of Archer Defterios is immersed in a luxurious pool of vivid blue. Characterized by large canvases of multi-layered acrylic and oil paint, Defterios is trailblazing a renaissance wave of post-war-inspired art techniques and styles. 

This entrepreneurial triumph and creative freedom is why Defterios, a senior majoring in design, was selected as the Winter 2023 artist for Museum LA, a pop-up art and dinner club in Venice.

The role of nature and the environment takes a front seat in Defterios’ artwork. Contrasting hues of blue create a borderless element and black-hole-like depth to Defterios’ art. Defterios seeks to foster harmony by allowing the harshness of chalking paint strokes to be softened through dripping paint and round dots that mimic planetary terrain. 

“My work wants to push for a lot of industrialization and innovation and the success of other people and other businesses,” Defterios said. “But it also is very in tune with nature and the idea that there’s a fine line between nature and industrialization that we all need to reach.”

Although the color remains a constant in his art style, Defterios has not stopped at blue. Instead, he’s ventured to launching canvases draped in the rich hues of jeweled greens, fiery oranges, noble violets and as of most recent, golden yellows. The most eye-catching feature of it all is the fire that appears on his paintings after dousing the canvas in rubbing alcohol. 

“I like the aesthetic appearance of the monochrome better. I think the monochrome won’t go out of style anytime soon, but that’s not why I do it,” Defterios said. “The idea is that you could put 50 canvases around [a monochrome painting], and that’s just one section, or it could be a section of the canvas. So the idea is that it expands beyond the actual canvas. You’re supposed to imagine this whole texture that consumes or improves the environment that it’s in.”

Defterios explained that setting his canvases ablaze allows for the several hundred layers of acrylic paint to melt away and bring forth the oil paint that bubbles up into fascinating shapes, colors and blemished textures hiding below the surface. 

“I’m using different types of paint, so I’m using water-based paint and I’m using oil paint. When the two mix, it’s kind of like olive oil and vinegar,” Defterios said. “The fire basically will bring the oil to the surface of the canvas, even if it’s buried under 50 layers of acrylic paint. The painting will bubble, and it’ll do different things. The fire brings it all together.”

Design has always been a priority for Defterios’ artwork.  During his internship at a Los Angeles real estate company in 2019, he was motivated to pursue design seriously after the creative director of the company acknowledged his seemingly natural talent in the field. 

After the internship, Defterios came to USC to pursue an education in design and entrepreneurship. One day, Defterios walked into a Blick art supply store to pick up some design materials for a project. 

“There were canvases there and I bought a canvas and I bought a bunch of paint and I blew off the logo project that I had,” Defterios said. “I just painted for like three days straight. I was super obsessed.”

While most beginner painters start small, Defterios started with a large scale painting, unafraid of what the canvas had in store for him. Since then, Defterios has made these very large canvases a part of his brand. 

As a teen and young adult, Defterios spent his time searching for objects in the sand of beaches and chasing waves to capture shots of surfers and the ocean. While spending his summers in Greece, his ancestral homeland, he would experiment with underwater photography — playing with the various lighting fixtures that the underwater environment created.

Defterios never envisioned himself as a painter, but his training in photography, design and his entrepreneurial background complemented each other to build Defterios’s very own brand, Caprice Design. 

Caprice Design is an L.A.-based “visual identity design and branding,” agency that specializes in finding ways to help companies and brands creatively execute their business models. Defterios’ goal is to help bridge the gap between companies and their clients by translating marketing strategies into visual art with graphic design.

“Archer has found a way to perfectly merge art and graphic design in a way where he understands both fields so well that he is able to do a lot more for his clients than just his art,” said Eric Yeich, close friend and videographer for Defterios.

Between his paintings and design agency, Defterios keeps himself busy. Defterios said he hopes to challenge the stigma that artists are just carefree, unmotivated and apathetic. 

“I wake up, paint for hours, then work on design projects on my computer, then back to more painting and then go to my night classes at USC,” Defterios said. “If you work hard, you do well.”  

Defterios’ Winter 2023 collection is on showcase at Museum LA, a dining and art club founded by recent USC graduates. 

David Gelland, a UCLA senior majoring in art history and co-founder and curator for Museum LA, recalled meeting Defterios at a dinner for the Fall 2022 artists. Defterios arrived at Museum LA covered in splattered blue paint, along with an appetite not only for food and negronis, but also that season’s featured artwork. Gelland developed a strong interest in Defterios’ art and visited his studio.

Attracted to Defterios’ commitment to pushing boundaries, he decided to have Defterios as the Winter 2023 artist for Museum LA. 

“He’s impervious to constraints and is energized by the prospect of boundlessness when many would be frozen by it,” Gelland said, “which makes it all the more exciting to see him develop with each piece.”