Venus de Mars

Venus de Mars (born January 11, 1960) is an American musician, visual artist, and performer based in Minnesota. She fronts the glam-punk band All the Pretty Horses, which she founded in 1993. de Mars identifies as transgender and came out publicly in 1988. Her work addresses punk music, trans identity, and performance art in the Minneapolis scene. Venus de Mars is notable as one of the first openly transgender people in the DIY punk scene.

Early life Venus de Mars grew up in Duluth, Minnesota. She married Lynette Reini-Grandell in 1983. de Mars came out as transgender in 1988 during therapy sessions.

Career de Mars entered performance art, painting, and installation in the late 1980s. For years she maintained the studio, SkinDog Productions in the North Loop Warehouse District neighborhood of Minneapolis. She formed All the Pretty Horses in 1993 after reconnecting with a former drummer. The band celebrated its 30-year anniversary in 2023.

Music de Mars leads the band "All the Pretty Horses", known for glam-punk sound. She performs in fetish dom attire to assert full-time transgender identity on stage. The stage provides validation absent elsewhere. Fans include young transgender people. de Mars exhibited at Rifle Sport Alternative Art Gallery in the 1980s and collaborated with Tim Miller at the Walker Art Center. She maintains a long-term installation, the "All The Pretty Horses Room," at the Carlton Arms Hotel in New York since 2002, featuring life-sized blue transgender-figures with wings and an octopus, painted with spouse Lynette Reini-Grandell.

Personal life de Mars and Reini-Grandell met as children in Duluth. Their marriage faced strains from de Mars's transition and band commitments. Reini-Grandell's memoir Wild Things: A Trans-Glam-Punk-Rock Love Story (2023) details their story from the 1980s.

Discography

Venus de Mars & All The Pretty Horses

Animal Angst (the 1984 Grandell Master Tapes) (2023 - Released) ATPH (1995) Ruin (2000/2023 Remastered) Creature (2002/2023 Remastered) Dolls with Balls Live in the Warehouse (2002/2023 Remastered) 10 Bones (2011) I Think The Darkness (2022 - LP, Ltd)

Solo and Other Releases

Trashed and Broken Hearted (2006 - Album) Take My Shoulder (feat. Laura Jane Grace) (2015 - Single) Flesh and Wire (2015 - Album) Even with Scars (2024 - Single)