Margaret Bowland was born in Burlington, North Carolina, and studied studio art and English at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her work explores the concept of beauty—what it means to be beautiful, but also to what extent it is significant today, both in the world and in art. ‘Being beautiful is a form of wealth, says Bowland. She considers that the commonly held ideal of beauty is to be tall, thin and white. And while we recognize deviations from this norm can have appeal, are deviations nonetheless. ‘The need to be beautiful fuels one of the largest and most ruthless industries in our world,’ she says. Bowland currently lives in Brooklyn and teaches painting at New York Academy. Her work has been exhibited at Greenville County Museum of Art in South Carolina and Babcock Galleries in New York, among others.