Someone Like You

Published to accompany Salman Toor's first solo museum exhibition in
Europe, at the Courtauld Gallery, London, this handsome publication offers
new insight into the artist's iconic, thought-provoking and often humorous
paintings. Exploring human interactions, as well as the desire and struggle to
experience a sense of belonging, Salman Toor: Someone Like You sheds fresh
light on Toor's work, addressing his manifold references and illuminating the
crucial role that drawing plays in his practice as a painter.
Salman 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.