The Easel

27th October 2026

Salman Toor’s Men in the City

Sean Burns | Frieze | 30th September 2026

Toor’s first exhibition in London is attracting rave reviews that will only add to a soaring reputation. Pakistani-born, he mainly paints “narrative” portraits and group figure compositions that explore the struggle to achieve “a sense of belonging, both culturally and emotionally.” Painted in “velvety” oils, they clearly reference Old Master works, of which Toor is an avid student. Says one critic, “He can do everything. … one of the most sought-after painters of his generation.”

Sunil Gupta’s candid camera

Michael Delgado | Apollo | 12th September 2026

New York’s Stonewell gay riots in 1969 were liberating for Gupta, allowing him to identify freely as a gay photographer. It was a period that involved “cruising with a camera” producing a mix of candid street photography and posed scenes. Returning to India and its “depressing” restrictions on gays, he recorded how gay men discreetly “revealed themselves”. Now somewhat less preoccupied with identity, Gupta seems pleased he can turn his lens to “a study of life”. Images are here.

It’s brave to admire Renoir because he’s almost a cancelled artist these days

Waldemar Januszczak | Waldemar.tv | 19th October 2026

A recent review of the Renoir show now in London gave a positive take on this artist. It seems only fair to hear the other side. This show is a “cocky” attempt to position the artist positively – that he was “uncouth but truthful”. His early work has “spectacular painterly qualities”, his quick hands capturing the sway of dancing couples and “the rush of love”. But the show stops at 1885, when Renoir still has decades of life left. It’s a wise decision – “Renoir the fierce misogynist is held back from the fray”.

20th October 2026

Issy Wood: Self-Portraits review – suffocatingly revealing works from the ultimate zillennial painter

Eddy Frankel | The Guardian | 16th October 2026

Wood, a young artist and “market darling” has a small selection of her works on show at London’s Portrait Gallery. They are all self-portraits and are characteristically “tense”, large format, tightly cropped compositions of her face. In some she wears a mask, presenting the complexity of “contemporary identity”. Her art, says the writer, is that of “the bored, the medicated, the perpetually online, the depressed overachiever … she’s not just good, she’s quietly important.”

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