Salman Toor (born 1983) is a Pakistani-born American painter. His works depict the imagined lives of young men of South Asian-birth, displayed in close range in either South Asia and New York City fantasized settings. Toor lives and works in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Biography

Salman Toor was born in 1983 in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

, Pakistan. He attended

Aitchison College Aitchison College ( ur, ایچیسن کالج) is an independent, semi-private boys school for boarding and day students from grade 1–13 in Lahore, Pakistan. It has a tradition of providing an education that uses academics, sports, and co-curri ...

. Toor came to the United States to attend school at

Ohio Wesleyan University Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) is a private liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio. It was founded in 1842 by methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents as a nonsectarian institution, and is a member of the Ohio Five – a consortium ...

, where he received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in 2006. He then obtained his MFA degree from

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in 2009. Toor is a part of a loosely-affiliated group of LGBTQ painters, sometimes called the ''New Queer Intimists'', which also includes contemporaries

Doron Langberg Doron Langberg (born 1985) is an American painter. Langberg paints in the style of genre painting and portraiture and addresses issues of gender and sexuality by making love and desire a shared experience through the surface and subjects of his pa ...

Louis Fratino Louis Fratino (born 1993) is an American visual artist. Education Fratino graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD in 2015. Fratino was a recipient of a Fulbright Research Fellowship in Painting, Berlin, 2015–2016 a ...

, Kyle Coniglio,

Anthony Cudahy Anthony Cudahy (born Florida, 1989) is an American painter. Cudahy's approach is both figurative and abstract and takes inspiration from a breadth of source material ranging from personal photographs, movie stills, queer archival images and ephemer ...

TM Davy TM Davy (born 1980) is a New York-based painter. Davy paints and draws in the style of social realism and portraiture, recognizable for his keen sense of light and color depicting both the human and non-human. Early life and education Davy was b ...

, and

Devan Shimoyama Devan Shimoyama (born 1989 in Philadelphia) is a contemporary African-American visual artist best known as a painter that uses mixed mediums in their work. Shimoyama's work is inspired by Black, queer, and male bodies from a personal perspective. T ...

. In 2019, Toor was awarded a grant from the

Joan Mitchell Foundation Joan Mitchell (February 12, 1925 – October 30, 1992) was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artis ...

. From 2020 to 2021, Toor's recent paintings were the subject of a solo exhibition, ''Salman Toor: How Will I Know'' at the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

. From 2021 to 2022, Toor's painting, ''Museum Boys'' (2021) is on view at the

Frick Collection The Frick Collection is an art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection (normally at the Henry Clay Frick House, currently at the 945 Madison Avenue#2021–present: Frick Madison, Frick Madison) features Old Master paintings and Europe ...

; as part of the artist residency and the exhibition, ''Living Histories: Queer Views and Old Masters'' where it is placed in a room in conversation with two paintings by

Johannes Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , , #Pronunciation of name, see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period Painting, painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle class, middle-class life. ...

, ''

Officer and Laughing Girl ''Officer and Laughing Girl'', also known as ''Officer and a Laughing Girl'', ''Officer With a Laughing Girl'' or ''De Soldaat en het Lachende Meisje'', was painted by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer in around 1657. It was painted in oil on canv ...

'' (made between 1655 and 1660) and '' Mistress and Maid'' (c. 1667).. In 2022 in an exhibition similar to that at the Frick, Toor's works were placed in conversation with old master painting's from the museum's collection in the exhibition ''No Ordinary Love'' at the

Baltimore Museum of Art The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is an art museum that was founded in 1914. The BMA's collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the Cone Collection of ...

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. In 2023, the exhibition will the voyage in a traveling modified version to the

Rose Art Museum The Rose Art Museum, founded in 1961, is a part of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, US. Named after benefactors Edward and Bertha Rose, it offers temporary exhibitions, and it displays and houses works of art from the permanent col ...

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pro ...

and will be placed in concert with their European classic paintings as well. Toor's work is included in such museum collections as the Whitney Museum of American Art and

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary ...

Work

Toor has described that his work is concerned with a variety of themes, such as treatment of brown men, young people in public and private spaces, and the role of technology in daily life. Curator Amika Trasi has noted ”They are ruminations on the identifications variously imposed on and adopted by queer South Asian men living in the diaspora”. In doing so, Trasi has written, Toor aims to include brown men in the art historical canon that is often missing this representation. Growing up in Pakistan, Toor explained an interview that he drew inspiration from Pakistani advertisements. Once he began to focus more on art, Toor found inspiration in paintings from the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

, Neoclassical, and

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

eras. Specifically Toor describes being inspired by

Van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh c ...

, Peter Paul Reubens,

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...

, and

Watteau Jean-Antoine Watteau (, , ; baptised October 10, 1684died July 18, 1721) Alsavailablevia Oxford Art Online (subscription needed). was a French painter and draughtsman whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement, as ...

. Curators note Toor’s art historical knowledge makes its way into his work.Wolin, Joseph. “Telling Details: THE PAINTED LIFE OF SALMAN TOOR.” ''Border Crossings'' 40, no. 1 (May 2021): 106–11. https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.bu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aft&AN=150277397&site=ehost-live&scope=site. For example, critic and curator Joseph Wolin observes that Toor's ''The Bar on East 13th'' directly references Manet’s ''A Bar at the Folies-Bergere''. In terms of his figuration, Toor has explained, “I like these seemingly undernourished and hairy bodies of color inhabiting familiar, bourgeois, urban, interior spaces. I see these boys or men as well-educated, creative types discovering what it means to live an artist’s life in New York City and in the thick of changing ideas about race, immigration, and foreignness, and also what it means to be American. Sometimes they can look like lifestyle images. They are also fantasies about myself and my community." Curators have noted Toor's paintings make use of bright, saturated colors to evoke emotion. Green is one of the most notable colors in his work. The artist cites the “nocturnal" quality that green can give to a painting, as well as it’s conflicting associations with poison and glamor. Toor works from memory and often depicts his friends in his paintings. Toor illustrated

Amitav Ghosh Amitav Ghosh (born 11 July 1956)Ghosh, Amitav
, ''Encyclopædia Britannica''

's 2021 book in verse,

Jungle Nama ''Jungle Nama'' is a graphic verse novel written by Indian author Amitav Ghosh and illustrated by Pakistani-American artist Salman Toor. It is a verse adaptation of the medieval Bengali tale about the Sundarbans Forest goddess, Bon Bibi. The bo ...

Art Market

According to salesroom, Toor has performed well in the art market since 2020.Gleadell, Colin. 2021. “A Pandemic Chronology: Part Two: From Frieze to the US Election.” Art Monthly, no. 444 (March): 43–45. https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.bu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aft&AN=148914352&site=ehost-live&scope=site. While working in Pakistan, collectors Taimur Hassan and

Kiran Nadar Kiran Shiv Nadar is an Indian art collector and philanthropist. Kiran is the wife of Shiv Nadar, the founder of HCL Technologies, and is a trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation and the founder of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. Personal life Ki ...

frequently purchased his work. After moving to New York, curators noted a change in style less reliant on master studies. Toor’s Whitney show sold almost entirely before opening to museum benefactors. Toor's first appearance in the auctions was on the 20th of October at Phillips Auction House in London where ''Aashiana (Hearth and Home)'' sold for £138,600, double its estimate. On December 15, 2020, ''Liberty Porcelain'' (2012) went for £378,000 at Phillips Auction House in London. In June 2021 at the Phillips Auction House in Hong Kong, ''Girl with Driver'' (2013) sold for $890,000, which was five times the estimated price.Gleadell, Colin. 2021. “Salerooms.” Art Monthly, no. 449 (September): 44–45. https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.bu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aft&AN=152240571&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Exhibitions

2022

* ''No Ordinary Love'', Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland

2020

* ''How will I know'', Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

2019

* ''Them'',

Galerie Perrotin Perrotin is a contemporary art gallery founded in 1990 by Emmanuel Perrotin, at the age of twenty-one. He has since opened over eighteen spaces, with the aim of offering increasingly vibrant and creative environments in which to experience art. He ...

, New York * ''Home is Not a Place'', Anat Ebgi Gallery, LA

2018

* ''Are you Here''? Lahore Biennale 2018, Lahore

2017

* ''Deep Ssips,'' Honey Ramka, New York

2016

* Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016, Kochi * ''Go Figure'', Aicon Gallery, New York

2015

* ''Salman Toor: Drawings from ‘The Electrician''’, Honey Ramka, New York

2014

* ''Wretch'', Honey Ramka, New York

2013

* ''Cinephiliac'': Art Transcending Technology and Motion, Twelve Gates Art Gallery, Philiadelphia * ''Return of The Native'', Rohtas II Gallery, Lahore

2012

* ''Stop Play Pause Repeat'', Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai Letters to Taseer II, Drawing Room Gallery, Lahore 2010 * ''All about Us'', Canvas Gallery, Karachi

2009

* ''Wounds'', Aicon Gallery, London * Exchange Show, Montclair University MFA Gallery, Montclair, New Jersey Pratt MFA Thesis Show, Stueben Gallery, Brooklyn

2008

* Pratt in Lucca, Piazza del Anfiteatro, Lucca, Italy

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toor, Salman Aitchison College alumni Pakistani artists Pakistani emigrants to the United States 21st-century American painters Living people Pratt Institute alumni 1983 births Artists from Lahore LGBT artists from Pakistan LGBT artists from the United States Ohio Wesleyan University alumni