"In This Painter’s Seductive World, the Past and Present Meet" by Emily LaBarge

Perhaps your eye will be drawn by the infinite shades of green on green — seafoam, viridian, chartreuse, mint, pine, you name it — that make Salman Toor’s canvases radiate an otherworldly luminosity.

Or maybe you’re pulled in by how the figures, alone or in groups, seem to undulate softly. If you’re an art buff, you might delight at how gestures and compositions are borrowed from historical works, suggesting that to paint is always to participate in a kind of quotation.

Whichever way, “Salman Toor: Someone Like You,” an exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery in London, contains many seductive visual worlds: personal and painterly, past and present. It is the New York-based Pakistani artist’s first solo show in Europe and a rare dedication of the Courtauld’s modest temporary exhibition spaces to a living artist.

The presentation focuses on narratives, and the accompanying descriptions frequently describes the paintings as “stories.” Toor himself has emphasized the importance of knowing that his subjects are queer immigrants with tales behind how they appear. In his paintings, figures not usually given prominence in Western portraiture are in the forefront, attaining the dignity and solemnity that the genre affords.

Read full article at nytimes.com.