Not Just a Barn: Don Hershman’s Powerful Solo Show Opens at Artifact Projects in New York City

California Artist Channels Human Resilience Through Rural Architecture

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, October 20, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- California-based painter and surgeon Don Hershman launched his new solo exhibition I AM A BARN at Artifact Projects in New York City. His new exhibition captures the quiet dignity and weatherworn strength of rural barns, transformed into monumental meditations on human resilience and can be viewed at the Gallery Wednesday through Saturday, 12:00pm–6:00pm each week through October 26th,

I AM A BARN marks Hershman’s first major New York City solo show since 2023, following a dynamic 2025 season of exhibitions in San Francisco, Pleasanton, and Sonoma County. Crafted in layers of acrylic, ink, and pencil on large-scale wood panels, Hershman’s barns are more than just buildings. They are symbolic portraits — cracked, bowed, enduring — echoing the scars and strength that come with time. “Each aging plank tells a story”, Says Hershman. “These barns mirror our own human journey: tested by the elements, shaped by trials, yet still standing.”

Notable Attendees included: Noreen Donovan, Ryan Roth, Brendan Roth, Stacy Schneider, Dr. Robi Ludwig, Kelly Hershman, Ben Bellow, Stella Bellow, Heather Bellow, Cory Cain Barton, and Gigi Salomon.

About Don Hershman:
Don Hershman leads a dual life of accomplished podiatric surgeon and fine art painter. As a child, Don Hershman was profoundly influenced by his field trips to the world-class museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He fantasized about becoming an artist, drawing incessantly, creating sketchbooks, and experimenting with color well into high school. When it came time to choose a career, he felt compelled to lock in a secure path that pointed toward medicine.

During medical school and surgical residency, he continued to draw, enabling him to better conceptualize the intricate spatial relationships between anatomical structures. As with a scalpel, he began to perfect his command of the pencil and paintbrush.

Donald went on to receive his BA in premed with psychology from State University of New York at Buffalo and trained in podiatry at California college of Podiatric Medicine in San Francisco before establishing his own private practice there in the early 1980s. As he was building his medical practice, Don was also evolving a body of artwork, exploring various media in the form of drawings and paintings, and finding his voice as an artist. While hosting a party in 1992, with many of his new artworks hanging in his home, Donald was invited by a guest, a curator at the Spectrum Gallery, to participate in a group show she was organizing. To his surprise, all of his pieces in that show sold, giving Donald the confidence and inspiration he needed to push on more seriously with his art.

Hershman’s work has been collected nationally and internationally. His paintings have been jury-selected for the de Young Open (2020, 2023) and exhibited in solo shows, including Donald and Victor: Under the Influence (2021) and Code Switching (2023) at Salomon Arts Gallery in New York. His I AM A BARN series, exploring resilience through aging structures, was exhibited at Radian Gallery in San Francisco and featured on the cover of San Francisco Arts Monthly magazine (2024).

In 2025, Hershman’s work was on view at 45 Fremont and One Front Street in San Francisco, and featured at Sea Ranch Lodge (Sonoma County), with solo exhibitions at Firehouse Arts Center (Pleasanton, CA), and MAG Galleries (San Francisco), with an upcoming show at Wessling Contemporary (San Francisco) in November.

For more information, please visit: www.donhershman.com
IG: @donhershman | F: donhershman.artist

Norah Lawlor
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