Pakistani painter Salman Toor included in first TIME100 Art list

“I straddle two cultures,” Toor, speaking about the influence on his work of growing up in Pakistan before moving to the United States. Toor’s paintings portray people in moments of friendship and love as well as solitude and alienation, with his figures and scenes fictional but rooted in personal experiences and memories, ’s Courtauld Gallery.

The 42-year-old has risen to international prominence since his first museum solo exhibition, “How Will I Know,” opened at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art in 2020. His work has since been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale in 2024, while his paintings have sold for more than $1 million at auction,.

Born in 1983, Toor trained in the United States, where he now lives. His 2022 exhibition “No Ordinary Love,” organised by the Baltimore Museum of Art, later traveled to museums in Tampa, Honolulu and Massachusetts before a selection of his works was featured at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024.

The TIME recognition comes ahead of another milestone for Toor, whose first solo exhibition in Europe, “Salman Toor: Someone Like You,” is due to open at London’s Courtauld Gallery on Oct. 2. The exhibition will bring together 19 paintings created since 2019 and focus on human relationships and the desire to find a sense of cultural and emotional belonging.

TIME said its inaugural TIME100 Art list was compiled over recent months to identify people shaping the global fine art world, with only half of those selected being artists themselves.