Designer Fabian Rios Unapologetically Lives and Breathes Art
Meet Fabian Rios, Undergraduate Student Speaker for UCLA Arts 2023 Commencement
“What started my artistic career was wanting to be famous, wanting to be a superstar,” says artist and designer Fabian Rios.
Growing up in Salinas, California, one hundred miles south of San Francisco, Rios subsisted on a steady diet of music videos, any they could get their hands on. Shakira and Beyonce were on regular rotation in the Rios household. Rios’ mom remembers they preferred pop stars over cartoons.
“Anything physical, anything visual,” says Rios. “Growing up, indulging myself with the art world was a way for me to escape the reality of being in Salinas.”
Salinas’ nickname is “The Salad Bowl of the World” due to its extensive agriculture industry, but Rios stands by Salinas. “It has a reputation for not being an ideal place to live, but I have a lot of pride in being from Salinas.” Rios’ parents and some of their family work in agriculture. It’s a perspective they don’t take for granted. “The food I enjoy on a day-to-day basis has this entire world behind it.”
Rios translated this insight to art. Pop stars aren’t just born that way. They’re cultivated, much like our produce.
Photo by Lauren Villanueva, UCLA Arts Photographer in Residence
“I love these music videos. I love Shakira and Beyonce. What they do has a whole other world behind it: it’s the arts,” says Rios.
But it runs deeper than that. Rios aspires to live and breathe art.
The appeal of pop stars “wasn’t so much their fame but more the security that fame brings,” says Rios. “I saw these people doing what they love, and that's their life. I want to be like that. I want to wake up and my only worry is, ‘How will I do my art today?’”
This didn’t seem possible until they received their acceptance letter to UCLA’s Design | Media Arts program in 2019. Suddenly, art stopped being a form of escapism but turned into something tangible—a career and passion shared by others.
“UCLA has given me the opportunity to explore what it means to be a designer in the modern sphere,” says Rios. “I have been able to see many facets of design and see ways I can take all my influences and inspirations and express them in a variety of mediums.”
Rios is set to graduate with a B.A. in Design | Media Arts and will serve as the undergraduate student speaker at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture’s commencement ceremony on Saturday, June 17.
A passion for music
As a teenager, around twelve or thirteen years old, Rios began making music. Remixes and mashups of their favorite songs. “Really, really bad electronic music,” says Rios, laughing.
It was at this time they realized they needed visuals to accompany the songs. They didn’t know any designers, let alone artists. That’s when Rios realized they needed to become one themselves.
“I guess I'll become that designer and artist,” says Rios.
Not knowing any artists meant Rios didn’t know where to begin, but they were determined. They weren’t going to be stopped by inexperience. It’s creativity and self-expression that ultimately drives Rios and motivates them to develop their craft.
Photoshoots with Paulina
Rios’ sister, Paulina, championed them at an early age. Their hangouts were often photoshoots with both serving as cameraperson and subject. They’d seek out tucked away nature spots—rivers, ponds, and secluded woods—to snap portraits of each other.
Even now, when Rios returns home, the siblings try to sneak in a photoshoot (although both are busy with their adult lives).
Image courtesy of Fabian Rios
“I owe my degree to her,” says Rios. “She couldn’t pursue photography as a profession. She introduced me to so many things that are now a big part of my life. I owe a lot of what I do as a designer—such as my aesthetics—to the stuff my sister likes.”
Rios kept at it, implementing design into their photography. They developed these skills themselves, but without Paulina’s support, Rios doesn’t know if they’d be at UCLA.
“This opportunity at UCLA was like being able to continue a journey she wasn't able to go on,” says Rios. They refuse to take it for granted.
Finding their own voice and amplifying others
Rios, like the music mashups of their youth, has found a voice that synthesizes all their influences, from photography to music to vibrant pop aesthetics.
Image courtesy of Fabian Rios
In 2022, while at UCLA, they created the “Musical Morality Quiz.” It was designed to determine your ideal music genre based on your personality. Depending on your selections, you could be either an angel or a demon. The quiz satirized the way certain music genres are subject to moral scrutiny and the validity and power that society gives to personality quizzes.
“My work is in your face,” says Rios, “but not yelling right in front of you. It’s expressive in either its political message, unapologetic aesthetic, or social commentary.”
Amplifying queer and trans voices is essential to Rios’ art practice. For lecturer Yogan Muller’s “Word + Image” course, Rios designed a zine called Queervinity, where Rios served as photographer, interviewer, and designer. The zine included musicians, jewelry artists, set designers, installation artists, and more. All money made from zine sales was donated to G.L.I.T.S (Gays and Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society), a grassroots organization dedicated to supporting the global LGBTQIA+ community.
“It had a minimalist aesthetic, but it was expressive in the fact that it was very, very queer,” says Rios. “It was putting that at the forefront and reclaiming that space to be like, ‘This is a queer work for all queer people.’ No apologies about that.”
But Rios notes that their art varies based on what’s happening in their life and the world around them. It ranges from pieces that advocate for queer communities of color to social justice and awareness. While other times, Rios just wants the world to know they love pink and Hello Kitty.
“If my sister saw how much I use pink in my work, she’d be like, ‘Why are you doing this?’ She hates pink,” says Rios, laughing.
To Rios, what makes their art unique is that it doesn’t serve one purpose; it’s as multifaceted as they are. But Rios recalls feelings of doubt, when they weren’t sure who they were or if they were on the right track. The future used to trouble Rios.
Image courtesy of Fabian Rios
“One thing I would say to my younger self is, ‘Don't doubt yourself. Where you are right now is where you're supposed to be. It'll all come to you naturally. Sometimes all you need is time,’” says Rios. “There’s nothing wrong with trying. There's nothing wrong with failing. Everyone’s a superstar in their own way.”
By Sean Arenas
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