Salman Toor’s lush figurative paintings capture intimate, everyday moments in the lives of imagined young, brown, queer men immersed in modern urban life. His work balances between warmth and unease, offering a blend of the inviting and the unsettling. Toor often portrays safe, comfortable domestic spaces where marginalized individuals thrive, while in other pieces, he creates allegorical scenes of waiting and uncertainty, representing transitions into potentially unwelcoming worlds. At the heart of his art are themes of identity, anxiety, and humor. His figures both employ and subvert familiar tropes, reflecting how difference is perceived by the self and others. As noted by Whitney curators Christopher Lew and Ambika Trasi, Toor’s work explores “vulnerability within contemporary public and private life,” particularly within the context of queer, diasporic identity. Through his depictions of both the mundane and significant moments of his characters’ lives, Toor offers a relatable narrative, fostering empathy through his visual storytelling.

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