ISLAMABAD, 18 September, 2026 (Kamran Raja): Pakistani-born, Lahore-born painter Salman Toor has been named among TIME magazine’s 100 most influential figures in art, featuring in the inaugural TIME100 Art list that recognises people shaping the global contemporary art world. The New York-based artist is included alongside museum directors, curators, gallerists, collectors and other influential figures in the fine arts. Speaking to TIME, Toor said he “straddles two cultures,” reflecting the influence of growing up in Pakistan before moving to the United States. His paintings depict people experiencing friendship, love, solitude and alienation, with fictional scenes rooted in personal memories and experiences. Toor gained international prominence after his first museum solo exhibition, How Will I Know, opened at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art in 2020. His work has since been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale in 2024, while his paintings have fetched more than $1 million at auction, according to TIME. Born in 1983, Toor trained in the United States, where he is now based. His 2022 exhibition No Ordinary Love, organised by the Baltimore Museum of Art, later travelled to museums in Tampa, Honolulu and Massachusetts. The TIME recognition comes ahead of his first solo exhibition in Europe, Salman Toor: Someone Like You, which is scheduled to open at London’s Courtauld Gallery on October 2 and will feature 19 paintings created since 2019, focusing on human relationships and the search for cultural and emotional belonging.