Don Hershman is both a  successful working artist — and podiatric surgeon —, and his last sold-out show in New York, “Donald and Victor: Under The Influence,” was a thought-provoking and loving tribute to his former partner who passed away due to HIV-related complications in 2001. Now, Hershman is back in NYC at the Salamon Art Gallery  to unveil his newest collection of 21 paintings entitled “The Art of Code Switching.”  reflects on his own life as a gay man of an earlier generation where gay men were constantly code-switching without even knowing it.

 

Merriam-Webster defines code-switching as “the switching from the linguistic system of one language or dialect to that of another.” But Hershman’s work pushes beyond that concept — examining how women, people of color, and queer and trans people often have to change much more than the way they speak in order to avoid discrimination, persecution, and violence on a daily basis. And it couldn’t be more timely, considering the relentless cultural and legislative war the far-right has waged against LGBTQ+ people over the last few years.

 

“When I began my formal residency training in the early ’80s I had to relocate to the South, forcing me back into the closet,” Hershman explained to The Advocate. “Creating these new paintings took me on a journey back to a time where there was no political correctness or recourse; easily fired or shunned if it were revealed that I was gay. After residency, I relocated to San Francisco and worked as a podiatric surgeon in an atmosphere engulfed by the AIDS epidemic, where young men often were not only hiding their sexual orientation, but their HIV status as well. They were constantly code-switching without even knowing it.”