Winston Smith’s montage art is a dark hybrid of 1950s advertising and scathing social criticism that skewers capitalism, domesticity and sexism. These days, it’s as likely to be hanging in places like the Varnish Gallery in San Francisco as it is to be stapled to a telephone pole.

His works include such pieces as “Addicted to War,” a montage in which the Statue of Liberty holds a hypodermic needle with the words “WAR” written on it while a shopping cart filled with tanks sits in the background.

Smith’s art was called dangerous by the Dead Kennedys’ vocalist, Jello Biafra, in particular the album art for the DK’s “In God We Trust, Inc.” Smith took an old crucifix with a removable Jesus, covered it with folded dollar bills and placed a bar code near the top to protest what he viewed as the commercialization of religion. He also designed the DK logo..
Winston Smith is an artist who still uses X-Acto knives, glue, old magazines and catalogs to create his art.