Pragya Gupta, Opening_Tetraptych (detail), 2026, oil on khadi, overall dimensions 48 x 96 in., tetraptych. Courtesy of the artist.
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, October 15 through December 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.
“In the three tetraptychs I wanted to explore how transformation unfolds across different kinds of time and scale. How the histories and textures of different materials—khadi, cotton, and raw linen—become part of the meaning itself. Each work brings together a different substrate stitched onto commercial canvas, creating a tension between optimized time and textured time. Together, the three works move across the time and scale of a single lifetime, multiple lifetimes, and eternal cyclical time.”
— Pragya Gupta
Opening Reception
Please join the Sachs Program and Penn Live Arts on Thursday, October 15, to celebrate the exhibition opening with a public reception in the Annenberg Center for Performing Arts beginning at 4:30 pm.
This program is free and open to the public. Registration is requested but is not required to attend.
- Thursday, October 15, 2026
4:30–6:30 PM - Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
3680 Walnut Street
University of Pennsylvania
About the Artist
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).
Arts of India Festival
The Arts of India Festival, hosted and co-presented by Penn Live Arts, October–November 2026, celebrates the vibrant cultural heritage of India. The festival explores India’s rich arts, music, and dance history alongside bold, contemporary innovations. Presented in partnership with Sruti, the India Music and Dance Society, Philadelphia, as part of its 40th anniversary, the festival features a range of performances, talks, and celebrations. Highlights include vocalist and writer TM Krishna, the Arun Ramamurthy Trio, composer and sitarist Niladri Kumar, and the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble.
For more information, visit pennlivearts.org.
Acknowledgments
The exhibition Chrysalis: Pragya Gupta was produced by The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation in partnership with Penn Live Arts.
The exhibition is organized as part of the Arts of India Festival presented by Penn Live Arts in partnership with Sruti, Philadelphia’s Indian Music and Dance Society.
