- Rion Sabean
- Sabean strikes a pose for his Men-Ups calendar.
Rion Sabean's “Men-Ups” — colorful photographs of 20-something guys dressed in guises of stereotypical masculinity and posed like mid-century pin-up girls — went viral on the Interwebs earlier this fall. Since then, Tampa artist Rion Sabean, 26, has been enjoying his 15 minutes of fame.
A senior BFA student at USF, Sabean often grapples with issues of gender, emotions and relationships in his art. The Men-Ups began as a class project and light-hearted exploration of gender-bending until an unknown admirer saw the images on Sabean’s website and posted them to Tumblr. Since then, media outlets including Huff-Po, Jezebel and The Advocate have come calling, and last week Sabean made an appearance on Good Day Sacramento via Skype, directing the morning show’s male host to pose on a fur rug.
“It’s been pretty intense, but it’s also a really great feeling that people are not just seeing [the work], but getting it,” he says.
This article appears in Oct 20-26, 2011.