The Los Angeles-based painter Christina Quarles is known for distorted figures that merge with nearby objects and bodies—a disturbing metamorphosis. Limbs, torsos, and faces are pinned within vibrantly colored canvases, intersecting across various planes. Quarles is telling stories about the body, how the social realm and its stresses implode within to create alienation and disconnection. At the Frye Art Museum, Quarles’s paintings and drawings from the last three years will be on view. The show also marks the U.S. debut of her large-scale installation, which employs trompe l’oeil to scintillating effect. —E.C.