Linda M. Montano, a central figure in contemporary feminist performance art, has been actively performing since the mid-1960s. She is probably most famous for her one-year collaboration with Tehching Hsieh, during which the two artists were bound to each other by a length of rope 24 hours a day.

One of her other well-known performances is based on her personal interpretation of the yogic chakra system. This durational piece titled, 7 Years of Living Art + Another 7 Years of Living Art = 14 Years of Living Art lasted from 1984 to 1998. Working from root centre, to crown, then back down again, each year was dedicated to a different chakra. Wearing one colour per year – chosen to represent a given year’s chakra – she would meditate for a minimum of three hours each day in a room painted the designated colour and carry out the daily task of living with an underlined concentration on that year’s energy centre. Between 1984–91, at the New Museum in New York City, Montano provided art/life counseling and Tarot readings for one day out of each month in a gallery also painted that same colour. During the first three years, additional directives were imposed: Montano would speak in a specific accent (not her own) for twelve months at a time to everyone except immediate family and would listen to a single pitch for seven hours a day while meditating in her painted room. Eventually the last two vows were dropped, but the intention and devotion remained. At the core was a desire to live more consciously and in a state of constant awareness.

Linda's work investigates the relationship between art and life through intricate, life-altering ceremonies, some of which last for seven or more years. She is interested in the way artistic ritual, often staged as individual interactions or collaborative workshops, can be used to alter and enhance a person's life and to create the opportunity for focus on spiritual energy states, silence and the cessation of art/life boundaries.

She has performed in over 300 art venues including Paula Cooper Gallery, Bard College, MOMA in San Francisco, Snug Harbor, Andrea Rosen Gallery, Temple University, Chicago Art Institute, ICA in London, Opus 40, University of Kansas, MOCA in San Francisco, University of California in Santa Cruz, Mass College of Art, Ananda Ashram and A’dam School For Dance.

Linda has taught Performance Art, History of Performance and Sculpture long term at numerous venues including University of Texas in Austin, University of California in Los Angeles, San Francisco State, San Francisco Art Institute, Ohio State University, Womens Building, Edgewood College, Tyler School of Art, Nazareth College, Mills College and Chicago Art Institute.

She has conducted workshops at over 200 venues including University of Texas in Arlington, University of Kansas, Zen Arts Center, Rensselear Polytech Inst., University of Southern California, Cornish School Omega, University of California in San Diego, and New York University.

Linda has received more than 13 grants/awards and has published six books including Letters from Linda M. Montano, Performance Artists Talking, Art In Everyday Life, Paulines Proverbs, Mildreds Death, Before And After Art/Life Counseling and The Art/Life Institute Handbook.

Her most recent piece is Dad Art: A Documentary Film and Performance. Linda welcomed the challenge of creating this piece with wisdom, poignant optimism and benevolent insights: “The parent-child relationship is the most, most fraught with karma. Having not had children and not made relationships priorities, I had no idea how to take care of anyone but myself. This [caregiving performance] was commitment. And it completely hammered me into the ground so that I resprouted as another being. It gave birth to a new me.”

The ensemble of Linda's work is about living more spontaneously and fully, about locating internal balance and serenity, about centering attention and about finding a voice. Her “living art” manifesto not only proposes that “life can be art,” it also provides practical instruction on how to make “living art,” in order to achieve this state of focused intention and presence.