Audience 2016

Salman Toor painted this piece, called Audience, using what looks like oil paint, in his signature dreamlike style. You know, sometimes paintings can feel so controlled, but here, it's like Toor is letting the paint do its thing, all soft edges and hazy figures. Look at how he builds up the faces with these quick, almost scribbled marks. Each one feels like a little decision, a response to the last. The faces are very lightly glazed with various shades of yellows, browns and reds, which feel very warm. There's this real sense of movement and fluidity, as if the scene is still unfolding. The hands of the audience are particularly arresting and it makes me think about the ways in which Toor is using them to direct our attention, but also to suggest our own emotional response to the people in the painting. It reminds me a little of early Bonnard, the way he uses color to create mood and atmosphere. But Toor's got his own thing going on, a kind of contemporary take on figuration. It’s really about seeing, and feeling, in a new way.