His association with Khoj Studios in Delhi, an organisation that promotes young artists and experimental work, begun in this period, also influenced his career.

[4] In 2006, the French art collector and businessman François Pinault bought Gupta's sculpture Very Hungry God, a giant skull made from aluminium kitchen utensils, weighing over 1000 kilograms.

[8] In February 2020, the owner of an anonymous Instagram handle who alleged sexual misconduct on the part of the artist apologised to Gupta, in response to a defamation lawsuit filed against them,[9] and withdrew the defamatory content posted.

[10] Gupta is best known for incorporating everyday objects that are ubiquitous throughout India, such as the steel tiffin boxes used by millions to carry their lunch, as well as thali plates, bicycles, and milk pails.

My Mother and Me (1997): Gupta set himself apart from others of his generation by adopting organic materials intrinsic to Indian culture in his work, most notably cowdung.

[13] Bihari (1999): Gupta addressed his identity and rural roots through a self-portrait enmeshed in cow dung and a single LED-inscribed Devanagiri word, "Bihari," meaning someone from the Indian state of Bihar, a qualifier often used as a slur, owing to the impoverished circumstances of the state, and people from Bihar seeking economic refuge in other parts of India.

[14] Very Hungry God (2006): Gupta's gigantic sculpture of a skull, made from kitchen vessels, was displayed outside François Pinault's Palazzo Grassi, at the 2007 Venice Biennale.

"Subodh managed to take a ubiquitous symbol and make it meaningful anew, an enormously difficult task that could only have been accomplished by a consummate artist," wrote Indian art critic Girish Shahane in January 2007.

Echoing sentiments of migration, displacement, belonging, movement, and stability, the work took its title from a line in "The Sufi Path of Love" by Persian poet Rumi: "What does the vat contain that is not in the river?

[17] Another work, Banyan Tree (2014), a life-size sculpture made from stainless steel, is permanently displayed at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.

In 2008, Gupta's oil on canvas work titled Saat Samundar Paar sold for Rs 34 million at a Saffronart auction, the money going to a fund for victims of a catastrophic flood in his home state of Bihar.