Salman Toor debuts at London's Courtauld — SkimNews
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- Salman Toor will present "Someone Like You," his first European solo show, at London's Courtauld Gallery next month, curated with Elena Crippa
- Toor's 2022 painting "Four Friends" sold for $1.2 million at Sotheby's, and Time recently named him among its most influential art people
- Toor lives in New York with musician Ali Sethi and painted a portrait of mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani at the request of Mira Nair, Mamdani's mother, in 2007
- Toor has an unfinished portrait of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia student detained for over three months, in his studio — part of what he calls his ongoing focus on the "brown protagonist"
- Toor co-curated "In a Free State" with Israeli American artist Doron Langberg after a five-month period during which he said global political horrors left him unable to paint figures
Why it matters: Toor's Courtauld debut — a gallery he first visited as a student from Pakistan — marks his institutional crossover into the European market after a New York-anchored career, with his $1.2M Sotheby's sale in 2022 signaling collector demand. The profile also positions him as an artistic chronicler of New York's south Asian political ascendancy, from his long-standing portrait of Mamdani to a new painting of detained activist Mahmoud Khalil.
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