AfterParty 2019

Salman Toor painted "AfterParty" with oil on board, sometime in the 21st century. Look at the color – that murky green washing over everything, unifying the figures and the space they occupy. It gives the painting a dreamlike quality. Toor builds the painting with layers of thin, washy paint. You can see the brushstrokes, how he lets the paint drip and pool, especially in the background. It’s like he’s not trying to hide the process, but rather embraces it. It's a great strategy. It gives the work a real immediacy. Zooming in, notice the figure on the stool, his bare foot dangling. The awkwardness of the pose, the almost sickly green tint of his skin – it's both unsettling and strangely intimate. The green that Toor uses makes me think of early Alice Neel, or maybe even a bit of Philip Guston, especially with that kind of wry, observational humor. Art's always in conversation, right? And it’s never just about one thing. Toor’s "AfterParty" lets us feel the messy, complicated beauty of human connection.