Artist Talk: Geri Montano

A conversation with artist Geri Montano and Dr. Melissa Farley, Founder & Executive Director of Prostitution Research & Education 

This program supports exhibition "Traded Moons" >> 

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About the panelists:

Geri Montano born in Colorado. She is a multiracial contemporary artist emphasizing her Native American heritage; Dineh (Navajo) from her father's lineage, and Comanche Frenc h/Spanish from her mother's.

Montano has been an artist all her life, although, received her formal art education from San Francisco Art Institute in 1997, graduating with a BFA in interdisciplinary arts, which included drawing, painting and sculpture. After graduating from SFAI she worked as a sculpture assistant and gave various mixed media art workshops. Montano has a strong interest in working with under-represented members of her community. She enjoys and believes in giving back to community as her part in making the world more whole. She is currently a visual art instructor for developmentally disabled adults.

Her work has been exhibited in many galleries, including Diego Riviera, Workspace Ltd., Michelle O’Connor, SOMArts Cultural Center, Galeria de la Raza, and most recently SJMACLA. Montano has participated in a variety of art practices including political street theater with Praxis Artists, where she designed costumes and performed. The group formed in Seattle after the World Trade Organization citizen uprising. She is currently creating provocative, mixed media drawing/collage works using acrylic ink, graphite pencil, and magazine cut-outs. The works in "Traded Moons" will be used in a wall installation. Her work is inspired by personal experiences relating to socio-political and feminist themes. Montano’s work juxtaposes aesthetic qualities with subversive imagery; combining aesthetic, thematic and technical skills, Montano impresses emotional and powerful ideas on the viewer; never shying away from controversial or taboo subjects.

She has recently been awarded a Creative Capacity grant in addition to a second Native American Arts & Cultural Traditions grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission. The latter grant supports "Traded Moons." Montano desires to give voice to the women and girls involved, as well as bring much needed public awareness and instigate dialogue which are first steps in catalyzing change.

Psychologist Melissa Farley has written 24 articles on prostitution and trafficking and two books: Prostitution, Trafficking & Traumatic Stress (2004), and Prostitution and Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connections (2007). She co-authored the first international survey of prostitution, violence,  and post-traumatic stress disorder in nine countries (2003); the first study comparing sex buyers to non-sex buyers (2011); and the first study of the lives of trafficked Native American women in the United States (2011).

Dr. Farley founded Prostitution Research & Education (PRE) in 1995. PRE is a San Francisco organization dedicated to original research and educational outreach including the arts. We listen to and publicize the voices of survivors of commercial sexual exploitation.  PRE's goal is to abolish prostitution, and offer alternatives to those in it.  PRE's research has been used by governments in South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, Ghana, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States for education and policy on prostitution and trafficking.

Freedom House is a home for survivors of slavery and human trafficking, located in the San Francisco Bay Area. The first shelter of its kind in Northern California, providing long-term aftercare for adult female survivors of sex or labor trafficking. Freedom House works closely with law enforcement and community partners to identify trafficking survivors, and to provide them with the care and services they need to rebuild their lives.

Free & open to the public

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