Gender Re-Reveal Party

AK Garski’s Gender Re-reveal Party is a reoccurring social practice artwork that examines how traditional gender reveal parties promote the view that there are only two genders, which are based on biology and remain fixed throughout a person’s life. The Gender Re-Reveal Party, is a community event created in collaboration with LGBTQIA+ student groups to celebrate gender fluidity and rejoice in a wide range of gender expressions.

Gender fluid party decorations at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Guests with takeaway artwork at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Gender fluid cake cutting at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Artist talk & student panel discussion at St. Catherine University

Balloon drop at St. Catherine University

Guests at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design

St. Kate's Gender Re-Reveal

MCAD Gender Re-Reveal

Click the buttons above to see more party images and read a full description of each community engagement event.

What sparked the creation of this project?

This project is inspired by Garski’s large-scale observational painting It’s A Girl, a piece that depicts the balloon that was given to Garski’s mother by the hospital when they were born. Packed away in storage for many years, the bright pink paint began to chip away, revealing that the balloon was made of silver Mylar. This material is not stereotypically associated with masculinity or femininity. It reflects whatever the viewer projects onto its surface, physically or psychologically. Mylar was thusly selected as the perfect material from which to make gender-neutral party decorations.

In the past, Garski has displayed this piece in exhibitions that were explicitly branded as showcasing “women artists.” In the context of these exhibitions, “It’s A Girl” functioned as a subversive disruption to restrictive, binary definitions of gender, allowing Garski to reclaim space as an artist who is nonbinary and trans.