Known for his moody figurative works that combine academic technique with a quick, sketchlike style, Salman Toor’s paintings depict intimate scenes in the imagined lives of young, queer men residing between New York City and South Asia. As Baltimore Museum of art curator Asma Naeem describes in her introduction, “his paintings resonate as journal-like entries that record moments of kinship, bonding, playfulness, lust, loneliness, rejection―pastel-inflected, gossamer-covered flights of the imagination with wispy Brown boys that mine the complexities of being an immigrant, queer and human.”
This monograph, produced in conjunction with the artist’s first retrospective exhibition, collects Toor’s most essential works alongside significant new texts, by exhibition curator Naeem and painter Evan Moffitt, that examine the works for both their formal innovations and their influences. Also included is an original new short story by author Hanya Yanigahara, illustrated by Toor’s paintings. Lavishly designed by Topos Graphics, No Ordinary Love is an exquisite introduction to a powerful young talent.