Abstract
Exhibition catalogue of 'Salman Toor: Someone Like You', Courtauld Gallery, London, 2 October 2026 - 10 January 2027
This publication focuses on Salman Toor’s exploration of human interactions and the desire and struggle to experience a sense of belonging, both culturally and emotionally, reflecting Toor’s to and fro between his native Lahore and adoptive New York. It will provide new insight into Toor’s iconic, thought-provoking and yet humorous paintings, his references and techniques. It will also address Toor’s mastery of drawing and the way it informs his practice as a painter.
Toor is well-known for his vibrant paintings that represent people in shared moments of friendship and love, as well as experiencing solitude and alienation. The characters that populate Toor’s painting are fictional but rooted in personal experiences and memories. Toor says that his paintings ‘depict queer and immigrant lives that straddle different cultures and inhabit the tension between intimacy and exposure, belonging and estrangement. What it means to find a community, but also the daily costs associated with visibility.’
Born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1983, Toor trained in the United States. He currently lives and works in New York. He has had major exhibitions internationally, including his acclaimed first institutional solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2020-21). More recently, he participated in the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2024). The Courtauld’s exhibition will be Toor’s first solo museum show in Europe.
Contributors:
Richard Meyer
Richard Meyer is Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor in Art History, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States
Aziz Sohail
Aziz Sohail is a curator and writer, currently PhD Teaching Fellow and PhD Candidate at the Department of Fine Art, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Elena Crippa
Elena Crippa is Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at The Courtauld, London, UK
This publication focuses on Salman Toor’s exploration of human interactions and the desire and struggle to experience a sense of belonging, both culturally and emotionally, reflecting Toor’s to and fro between his native Lahore and adoptive New York. It will provide new insight into Toor’s iconic, thought-provoking and yet humorous paintings, his references and techniques. It will also address Toor’s mastery of drawing and the way it informs his practice as a painter.
Toor is well-known for his vibrant paintings that represent people in shared moments of friendship and love, as well as experiencing solitude and alienation. The characters that populate Toor’s painting are fictional but rooted in personal experiences and memories. Toor says that his paintings ‘depict queer and immigrant lives that straddle different cultures and inhabit the tension between intimacy and exposure, belonging and estrangement. What it means to find a community, but also the daily costs associated with visibility.’
Born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1983, Toor trained in the United States. He currently lives and works in New York. He has had major exhibitions internationally, including his acclaimed first institutional solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2020-21). More recently, he participated in the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2024). The Courtauld’s exhibition will be Toor’s first solo museum show in Europe.
Contributors:
Richard Meyer
Richard Meyer is Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor in Art History, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States
Aziz Sohail
Aziz Sohail is a curator and writer, currently PhD Teaching Fellow and PhD Candidate at the Department of Fine Art, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Elena Crippa
Elena Crippa is Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at The Courtauld, London, UK
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Paul Holberton Publishing |
| Publication status | In preparation - 2026 |
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Salman Toor: Someone Like You'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Cite this
- APA
- Standard
- Harvard
- Vancouver
- Author
- BIBTEX
- RIS