Salman Toor: How Will I Know

November 13, 2020-April 4, 2021

Salman Toor: How Will I Know
(20.03.2020 - 05.07.2020)

For his first museum solo exhibition, Salman Toor (b. 1983) presents new and recent oil paintings. Known for his small-scale figurative works that combine academic technique and a quick, sketch-like style, Toor offers intimate views into the imagined lives of young, queer Brown men residing between New York City and South Asia. Recurring color palettes and references to art history heighten the emotional impact of Toor’s paintings and add a fantastical element to his narratives drawn from lived experience.

Lush interior scenes depict friends dancing, binge-watching television shows, playing with puppies, and gazing into their smartphones. In these idealistic settings, Toor’s figures are freed from the impositions placed upon them by the outside world. In contrast, his more muted tableaus highlight moments of passivity to convey nostalgia or alienation. One painting features a forlorn man whose possessions are on display for the scrutiny of airport security officers; another renders unspoken tensions around a family dinner table palpable. Taken as a whole, Toor’s paintings consider vulnerability within contemporary public and private life and the notion of community in the context of queer, diasporic identity.

Salman Toor: How Will I Know is organized by Christopher Y. Lew, Nancy and Fred Poses Curator, and Ambika Trasi, curatorial assistant.

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Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Salman Toor (b. 1983) earned his Masters of Fine Art from The Pratt Institute in 2009. His work has been featured in several solo and group presentations in the United States and South Asia, including the 2018 Lahore Biennale, Lahore, Pakistan; the 2016 Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, India; Aicon Gallery, Marianne Boesky, and Perrotin, all in New York; Nature Morte, Delhi, India; and Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles. Toor’s works are held in prominent public collections such as Tate Modern, London, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. He is a 2019 recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s Painters and Sculptors Grant.