Salman Toor paintings capture people in moments of friendship and love, as well as solitude and alienation. The exhibition at the Courtauld presents 19 paintings, all created since 2019, that focus on Toor’s exploration of human interactions and the desire and struggle to experience a sense of belonging, both culturally and emotionally. The exhibition is complemented by a special display of Toor’s drawings in the Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Drawings Gallery. While Toor’s figures and scenes are fictional, they are rooted in his personal experiences and memories. Speaking of his works, he says they “depict queer and immigrant lives that straddle different cultures and inhabit the tension between intimacy and exposure, belonging and estrangement. What it means to find a community, but also the daily costs associated with visibility”.