Venus DeMars

Venus De Mars, Artist, Musician, Writer, Activist. Circa 2000 – 2015. Photos courtesy of Venus De Mars.

Duluth native Venus DeMars is a Minneapolis-based transgender musician, visual artist, writer, activist and performer. Venus has been performing locally, nationally and internationally since the 1980s, notably with the long-running glam-punk band, All the Pretty Horses. In 2014, Venus won a legal battle against the Minnesota Department of Revenue, challenging a ruling that denied her being a professional artist. The Venus DeMars Papers are an ongoing archive project that can be accessed through the University of Minnesota Andersen Library Performing Arts Archive. Venus and wife of 39 years, Lynette Reini-Grandell, have written two memoirs about their relationship, soon to be published.

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