February 9-May 1, 2026
Artists Linda Ruggiero and Sugandha Gupta use textile practice to create works that honor embodied knowledge and challenge conventional modes of perception. Ruggiero draws from her experience as a critical care nurse, using the rhythm of weaving to process the emotional weight of trauma and caregiving. Her sculptural fiber works translate psychological states through color—warm tones expressing joy and connection, cool hues conveying isolation and grief—while the material itself embodies tension, containment, and release through texture and structural manipulation.
Gupta’s artistic vocabulary is rooted in touch, sound, and sensation. Her multi-sensory textiles deliberately resist the visual primacy of contemporary culture, inviting audiences to experience art through their strongest perceptual abilities. Drawing on phenomenological theory and research into sensory perception, she constructs elaborate textures and forms that engage multiple senses simultaneously, creating inclusive experiences that bridge disabled and non-disabled communities.
Both artists use fiber’s tactile properties to express what words cannot fully capture, from emotional trauma to sensory experience. Ruggiero’s weaving becomes therapeutic processing, while Gupta’s fabric manipulation activates intentional sensory engagement. Most significantly, both challenge viewers to move beyond passive visual observation, inviting physical and emotional interaction with their work. Where Ruggiero makes visible the invisible labor of caregiving, Gupta makes accessible the often-overlooked richness of non-visual perception. Together, their textiles create spaces of multi-faceted embodied understanding.
Braille and large print exhibition guide available at gallery entrance.
Sugandha Gupta is Assistant Professor of Fashion Design and Materiality at Parsons
School of Design. Born with Albinism and visually impaired, Gupta creates Sensory-Textiles, a collection of textiles and wearables that engage audiences through their sense of touch, sound, smell, and sight. Gupta’s research interests are at intersections of multi-sensory art, design and embodied justice. Over nearly twenty years, Gupta’s work has been exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the United Nations Headquarters, American Craft Council, and the Smithsonian Craft Show, among others. She has won the Dorthy Waxman Textile Prize, International Design Award, and CFDA Design Graduate.
Linda Ruggiero is a Philadelphia-based nurse and textile artist whose sculptural fiber work is informed by her experiences in critical care at a Level I trauma center. As a clinically practicing nurse with doctoral training in neuroscience, she uses color psychology and tactile materiality to create textiles that tell stories of grief, trauma, and healing. Linda is largely self-taught but continues to receive guidance and training through local guilds and craft schools. Over the past year, she has exhibited work in juried group exhibitions at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, Peters Valley School of Craft, and The Craft Coven Gallery. In June 2025, she presented her first solo exhibition, Woven Stories, at Da Vinci Art Alliance in Philadelphia.
