Name: O. Smith: Artivist
Start: 2026-10-02T10:00:00-0700
End: 2026-10-02T17:00:00-0700

Join us for our annual San Francisco/ Bay Area Black Art week from Wednesday September 30th - Sunday October 4th, 2026!

O. Smith: Artivist

Friday October 2, 2026 10:00am - 5:00pm PDT

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art @ 151 3rd St, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA

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Orlando Smith is a graphic artist whose drawings carry urgent political demands. A self-described “artivist” — both artist and activist — he uses pencil and paper to chronicle the senselessness of the criminal legal system and to indict abuses of power in the United States and around the globe. Smith, who is currently incarcerated at San Quentin prison, began drawing more than forty years ago, initially inspired by Marvel Comics. Since then, he has created 783 original characters and nearly seventy graphic novels under his own imprint, Skullthuggery Comics. After witnessing the devastation of COVID-19, he redirected his comic approach toward illustrated journalism “to reveal the truth from inside the prison itself.”

Now in his late fifties, Smith is particularly attuned to the struggles of San Quentin’s long-term aging population, whose chances for release are bleak despite a near-zero recidivism rate. “I just run and stay the course,” he writes. “Continue to better myself. I don’t have time to waste. None of us do. The goal is creating safer communities and a better life for ALL Californians.” Driven by an irrepressible creative force — and a deep belief in the humanity of all people — Smith’s work fearlessly confronts injustice while crying out for universal civil rights. It is righteous, loud, and productive: a new kind of American Gothic.

Artists

Orlando Smith

Artist

Orlando Smith AKA O. Smith was born and raised in South Central, Los Angeles. He is currently serving 8 life sentences at California’s San Quentin State Prison under the draconian Three Strikes Law. His illustrative reporting has been published in the Columbia Journalism Review and The Prison Journalism... Read More →

Orlando Smith PS25.156 01 P02 Large JPEG 5x7 1024x770 jpg

Friday October 2, 2026 10:00am - 5:00pm PDT
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Exhibition

Website https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/o-smith-artivist/

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Orlando Smith

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