Orlando Smith aka "O. Smith"

Artist Statement

I am an artivist – an artist-activist – and my work combines illustration, journalism, and personal history to expose human rights abuses around the world. I work primarily as a comics artist. The unique storytelling style of comics led me to pivot to using the medium as a way to expose and share truth through illustrative journalism.

Art is my vehicle for ideas, knowledge, and truth. I seek to grab the minds of young people, especially those “at-risk”, to create positive change. In 25 years of incarceration, I have created more than 55 graphic novels and countless other art projects. I began my journey as a graphic novelist, creating comics for pleasure and self-expression. In 2020, the coronavirus ravaged San Quentin State Prison and resulted in 29 deaths. After hearing misinformation from corporate news outlets and disinformation from prison officials, I began to apply my illustrative skills to journalism in order to reveal the truth from inside the prison itself. Since 2020, I have expanded my scope beyond San Quentin, and I continue to support various causes through my work.

My ongoing, serial works “The Grueling Report” and the “O. Smith Perspective” are the results of my truth-telling endeavor. I use the power of illustration to unveil images that would otherwise remain behind the prison walls. These works invite the viewer to imagine the stories, realities, and lives of the many people currently incarcerated in San Quentin and beyond.

My “Protest Poster” series focuses on current social issues fused with cos-play and hidden aliens. This is my way of pointing out injustice and human rights abuses all around the world.

Artist Bio

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 Project.

Smith has been featured in over two dozen exhibitions since 2017, including Meet us Quickly with Your Mercy: Painting for Justice, Museum of the African Diaspora(2020); Mothership: Voyage into Afrofuturism, The Oakland Museum of California, (2021); Commonstrust: Artists and the Commons Thacher Gallery, USF, (2022); a solo show, O. Smith Perspective, Manna Gallery, Oakland (2022); Work Assignments: Forced Prison Labor in the Land of the Free, several Bay Area locations (2023 & 2024); Seeing Through Stone, Institute of the Arts and Sciences, Santa Cruz, (through Jan.5th 2025); Paperchained International, Boom Gate Gallery, Australia (2024); Innocence, SF Opera House (2024); Involuntary Servitude Digital Billboard campaign for Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, California(2024). He is on permanent display at the University of Derby in England. In Spring 2024 he participated in two Yale University Teach-Ins. Painting Ourselves Into Society, Berkeley Art Center (July 27 - October 20, 2024) is his curatorial debut followed by Finding Freedom From The Inside: Stories Shaped In And Out of Incarceration with U.C.Berkeley, La Pena Cultural Center(September 16th—October 19th 2024).

To see one of his short graphic novels check out San Quentin News, Awakenings.

Sign Orlando’s commutation petition on Change.org HERE