At the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, he studies under a second set of influential teachers, Martha and Walter Erlbacher, who are famous for teaching anatomy in both sculpture and drawing.
In order to fully master the principles he learned from these four teachers, he continued his education at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design with many different artists, including Max Ginsberg, Jacob Collins, Hillary Holmes and Ronald Sher.
Pugliese has exhibited at Eleanor Ettinger, John Pence, Capro Nason, Arcadia, Hirschl and Adler and Bellwether galleries. He is currently represented by Shooting Gallery in San Fransisco where he had a solo show in July 2010, followed by a museum retrospective at the New Britain Museum of American Art.