artist
Archer Defterios is a Greek-American artist based in Los Angeles, California, known for his richly layered, process-driven work that explores the interplay of color, light, and texture. Using a mix of acrylics, oils, and even fire, Defterios creates surfaces that appear minimal at first glance but reveal complex underlayers upon closer inspection. His work often conceals vivid color palettes beneath restrained compositions, encouraging a slower, more contemplative viewing experience. In June 2025, debut solo exhibition, Under Marble, featured a body of work that emphasized materiality and process, deeply informed by the textures and landscapes of Greece.
Description
This horizontal composition marks a distinct departure from Defterios’ vertical earth-toned, impact-driven works, immersing the viewer instead in a field of layered blue. Built up through successive veils of deep indigo, ultramarine, and midnight tones, the deepest strata revealing lighter tints, as though glimpsed upward through shifting depths. The painting suggests a space that is expansive, infinite, and serene rather than eruptive, its energy held in suspension across, and beyond, the canvas.
While not overtly referential, the work carries a quiet resonance with open water and distant horizons, evoking an atmosphere that feels both contemplative and vast. Subtle abrasions, dragged pigment, and softened edges hint at movement beneath the surface, inviting the viewer to look through rather than simply at the painting. In this painting, Defterios turns his process toward a slower kind of revelation, one that unfolds like light filtering through depth.