“Three Friends in a Cab”, 2021, Oil on panel

Salman Toor’s recent exhibition, No Ordinary Love, at Tampa Museum of Art consists of over 45 paintings and drawings, split into three themes- Family, Desire, and Tradition. It’s a really impressive show with work that combines art history references with personal narrative to create fascinating paintings.

The works in the “Family” section are intimate and sometimes picture the artist as more as an observer and less of a participant, like in Mommy, pictured below.

“Mommy”, 2021, Oil on canvas

“Mommy”, 2021, detail

His personal history, as both a queer artist and a Pakistani-born American, can be seen and felt throughout the exhibition. Pictured below, Back Lawn, references the Mughal tradition of garden scenes, with multiple actions happening at the same time.

“Back Lawn”, 2021, Oil on canvas

“Back Lawn”, 2021, detail

“Back Lawn”, detail

Walking Together feels more personal, especially with the main figure looking directly at the viewer. It’s easy to imagine the child from Mommy, now an adult, still looking for his place in the world.

From the museum’s wall description-

Three men are seen in the middle of a crowded room. In the center of the painting, a man in a white shirt with black dots is being escorted by his companion. However, this central figure holds hands with another man, whose historical costume recalls that of a European court jester, adding a sense of absurdity and mystery to the scene.

The linking of these three figures hints at both an attraction and a clash between past and present, between European cultures and those of the South Asian diaspora. In this composition, Toor seems to suggest the precarity of queer desire and the anxieties of those who exist between worlds.

“Walking Together”, 2019, oil on panel

Art historical themes appear again in Museum Boys, with the inclusion of representations of European art.

“Museum Boys”, 2021, oil on panel

“Museum Boys”, 2021, detail

A few paintings also focus on the danger and fear of persecution that concerns Toor, present in work like Night Capture.

“Night Capture”, 2021, oil on panel

It was hard to select which work to highlight- there were so many pieces deserving of contemplation and discussion. It will be exciting to see what Toor creates going forward.

This exhibition closed in Tampa on 6/4. It moves on to the Honolulu Museum of Art from July through October of 2023 and then continues on to the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University in Massachusetts on November 16th running until February 11th of 2024.