Salman Toor, 1983

Salman Toor is a Pakistani-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.

Toor has described that his work is concerned with various themes, such as the treatment of brown men and young people in public and private spaces and the role of technology in daily life.

Curator Ambika 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 that 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, Neoclassical and Rococo eras.

Specifically Toor describes being inspired by Van Dyck, Peter Paul Reubens, Caravaggio, and Watteau.

Curators note Toor's art historical knowledge makes its way into his work.

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 its conflicting associations with poison and glamor.

Toor works from memory and often depicts his friends in his paintings.

Toor illustrated Amitav Ghosh's 2021 book in verse, Jungle Nama. | Source: © Wikipedia

Salman Toor è un pittore figurativo Pakistano-Americano.

Le sue opere raffigurano le vite immaginate di giovani uomini di origine dell'Asia meridionale, mostrate a distanza ravvicinata in ambientazioni fantastiche dell'Asia meridionale e di New York City.

Toor ha conseguito un BFA presso la Ohio Wesleyan University ed un MFA presso il Pratt Institute.

Fortemente influenzati dalle opere degli maestri antichi e dai surrealisti, i dipinti figurativi intimi dell'artista spesso attingono alla sua vita di uomo queer a New York City, descrivendo teneramente sia le libertà che le vulnerabilità della sua comunità urbana e cosmopolita.

Tavolozze di colori ricorrenti e riferimenti alla storia dell’arte aumentano l’impatto emotivo dei dipinti di Toor ed aggiungono un elemento fantastico alle sue narrazioni tratte dall’esperienza vissuta.

Toor vive e lavora a New York City.