Born in1938 in Athens, Greece, Aris Koutroulis was an artist and art educator all his adult life. Upon graduation from Louisiana State University in 1961 with a Bachelors Degree in Fine arts he was awarded a two-year Ford Foundation Grant to study lithography at the renowned Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles, California. In 1964, he was accepted as a teaching fellow in the Graduate Program in Painting and Printmaking at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He earned his Masters of Fine Arts degree in 1966, and was appointed Assistant Professor to head the new Lithography Workshop in the Department of Art at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. In 1976 he was invited to head the Painting Department as an Associate Professor at The Center for Creative Studies, College of Art and Design in Detroit, and became a full Professor and appointed Chairman of the Fine Arts Department in 1980.

Koutroulis has been the recipient of numerous awards including the National Endowment for the Arts, Michigan Council for the Arts, Ford Foundation and Mellon Foundation Awards, and the prestigious Michigan Foundation for the Arts Award. He is included in Who's Who in the Midwest, the East, and Who's Who in the World. His works have been exhibited throughout the United States, Greece and Japan. He is included in the collections of major museums including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C. and the Detroit Institute of Art, as well as many others.

Aris Koutroulis died in Clearwater, Florida on 10/04/2013.