The Lahore born Pakistani artist Salman Toor has been featured on the Time100 Next list, which highlights emerging leaders who are shaping the future.
According to Time, Salman Toor has been named among 2021 TIME100 Next most influential people in the world. He is an artist who has “made his career subverting the styles of old paintings by centering openly queer men of South Asian descent.”
Toor announced his success by taking to Instagram, “Super excited to be included in TIME100 Next 2021 among emerging leaders who are shaping the future,” he wrote.
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The publication lauded Toor’s brilliance and penned, “Toor, who was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and lives in New York City, has made his career subverting the styles of old paintings by centering openly queer men of South Asian descent in an attempt to, as he says in the audio guide for The Star, “play with the idea” of societal norms.”
It further added, “Now more people than ever are paying attention: the artist recently secured his first solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, which will be on display through April 2021.”
Moreover, the painter made headlines when he sold his painting in the United States at a staggering $822,000, probably the highest ever for a Pakistani artist. Toor’s painting “Rooftop Party with Ghosts I” was sold at Christie’s post-war and contemporary art sale at the said price against an estimate of $100,000-150,000 on December 3, 2021. Measuring at 46.5 inches by 66 inches, the oil on canvas painting was created by the artist in 2015.
The Time100 Next list is divided into multiple categories, artists, phenoms, leaders, advocates and innovators. The list features actors such as Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (Never Have I Ever) and Rege-Jean Page (Bridgerton) alongside world leaders such as Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin.
