Aristides Demetrios

In 2002, Demetrios won the "Santa Barbara Beautiful Award" for the most beautiful work of public art. It was given to acknowledge his 18' bronze fountain, Mentors, a centerpiece at Santa Barbara City College, in a site overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The Fountain was donated to the campus by Eli Luria and Michael Towbes, two Santa Barbara philanthropists. Each owns other works by Demetrios.

CHAIR. UN 50TH ANNIVERSARY SAN FRANCISCO, CREATION OF UN PLAZA, SF SAN FRANCISCO ART COMMISSIONER 1989-93 ACQUISITIONS COMMITTEE SFMOMA (ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN) 1992-5 ARTIST IN RESIDENCE UC SANTA BARBARA 1998-2000

Demetrios successfully completed several monumental public sculptures, including Wind Harp (1967) in South San Francisco; Flame of Freedom,the Bataan War Memorial on the island of Corregidor; the 80' sculpture Cosmos, the fountain Pierine in New York City, Breakthrough, etc.) Wind Harp (1967) was designed for and installed on a hilltop in a South San Francisco industrial park. Originally it was called Cabot, Cabot and Forbes, after the developers of the industrial park. 92 feet tall and made of open metalwork of rusted steel, it is an aeolian harp, strummed by wind.

In 1963, Demetrios won his first national sculpture competition, when his proposed design was selected for a major fountain commission on the campus of Stanford University (White Memorial Fountain, or "Mem Claw"). Soon after, he was chosen for a public art commission in Sacramento in front of the County Courthouse. Next he was selected by David and Lucille Packard to design and fabricate a sculpture for the entry to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (Forms Sung In A Kelp Forest).

After graduating from Harvard College in 1953, Aris Demetrios served as an officer for three years in the US Navy. He studied art and sculpture at the George Demetrios School from 1956 to 1959. He studied at the University of California School of Architecture, in 1959.

Aristides Burton Demetrios (born 1932) is an American sculptor.

Aristides Burton Demetrios, also known as "Aris," was born in 1932 and raised in Massachusetts, where he lived during childhood in Gloucester. His father George Demetrios was a classical sculptor, trained by Antoine Bourdelle, a student of Auguste Rodin. His mother Virginia Lee Burton was the renowned author and illustrator of children's books, including Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, and The Little House, for which she won the prestigious Caldecott Medal. She was also a textile designer, founding the Folly Cove cooperative.