Part of the Arts of India Festival
The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation and Penn Live Arts are pleased to present Chrysalis, an exhibition of paintings by artist Pragya Gupta. The exhibition will be on view in the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Pennsylvania, Oct 15 through Dec 13, 2026.
Pragya Gupta’s work is about transformation; her practice is grounded in a sustained inquiry into what it means to become intimate with one’s own life. Her paintings explore the tension between the selves we construct and the more intimate parts of ourselves that can be harder to hear.
Chrysalis is centered on a new series of tetraptychs (four-paneled artworks) alongside earlier works that trace the evolution of this inquiry. Across the new works, the four-panel structure, scale, and relationship between commercial canvas and stitched fabric remain constant, while the visual language changes markedly from one work to another. The shared structure becomes a kind of container for change, allowing the same inquiry to unfold differently in each work.
Opening Reception:
Please join us for the exhibition's opening reception on Thu, Oct 15 at 4:30 PM. This event is free and open to the public. Registration is requested but not required.
Pragya Gupta (b. 1986, Patiala, India) grew up in India without access to the arts and followed a path shaped largely by the expectations around her. She studied engineering, earned an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (WG ‘14), and built a finance career in London. Everything about this path shifted for Pragya during a visit to the National Gallery. Standing before the paintings, she felt a primal need to create. Sparked by that realization, she eventually left the world of finance and began asking a question that continues to shape her life and work: What is my life asking of me?
Recent solo exhibitions include The Places We Carry: A Search for Identity at The Francis Cope House, Awbury Arboretum (2026) and As a New Leaf Trembles at the Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center (2024).
The exhibition Chrysalis: Pragya Gupta was produced by The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation in partnership with Penn Live Arts. It is part of the Arts of India Festival, which is co-presented with Sruti, The India Music & Dance Society, Philadelphia. Lead support for the Arts of India Festival is provided by the William Penn Foundation.
