Puppy Play Date 2019

Curator: This painting by Salman Toor, created in 2019, is titled "Puppy Play Date." It's an oil on canvas piece rendered in a style reminiscent of genre painting. What strikes you most when you look at it? Editor: The light, it's strange and enchanting! A gentle luminescence around their heads—like a halo, but subtle. And the almost feverish energy of the dogs amidst all the softness. It creates a tender but unsettling vibe, like a memory. Curator: The materials themselves, especially the oil paint, contribute heavily to that sense of memory. Look at the texture, the way the brushstrokes build up layers of meaning. The green of the chair, almost violently green against the softer hues, grabs your attention. And those layers upon layers of paint suggest a weightiness—perhaps a commentary on the weight of relationships and domestic life? Editor: Or maybe just the pleasure of layering and seeing where the paint wants to go! Those pups though. Are they real or some weird hallucination? They look like two dogs kinda smashed together to me; beautiful but totally surreal. Curator: It definitely toes the line between observation and something more internal, a fantasy maybe. I'm interested in how Toor uses portraiture and figurative painting to comment on contemporary social dynamics, and what seems like quiet domesticity serves as a staging ground for exploring these deeper societal tensions, queer intimacy. Editor: Totally get that. And the room—it feels familiar and generic, not specifically placed in the world. That laptop could be anywhere! Everything feels like its been filtered through a sentimental lens, doesn’t it? Like a queer memory bubble. Curator: Precisely! And this use of oil paint situates it in this tradition of painting... making that memory a tactile thing, a record. And records can be reassessed, reinterpreted... Editor: Exactly! Its funny how simple things, dogs playing in our laps can be, like tiny portals that way.