SALA – The Many Faces of Pulteney
The Many Faces of Pulteney
This August, Pulteney’s Osmond Street Studios will open its doors for The Portrait Assembly—a SALA exhibition bringing together portraits by current students, staff, parents and old scholars, alongside remarkable works rediscovered within the School’s archives.
Co-curated by Head of Art, Design and Technologies Lauren Sutter and Art, Design and Technologies Officer Greta Gramazio, the exhibition began with a simple observation: portraiture seemed to be appearing everywhere in the Art Centre.
“We had numerous classes and staff exploring portraiture at the same time, so initially it was quite a pragmatic decision,” Lauren explains. “But as I sat with the theme, it began to mean much more.”
Lauren found herself thinking beyond Pulteney’s historic dates and milestones to the thousands of individual faces that have filled its classrooms and grounds over more than 175 years.
“I started imagining the children who studied here 50, 100 or 150 years ago—laughing and telling stories, playing outside the Nicholls Building, or sitting with brows furrowed over some complex problem,” she says. “In many ways, those childhood experiences are timeless. I’d like to think this exhibition honours the countless faces that have formed part of the Pulteney community across generations.”
That sense of continuity became tangible when Lauren and Greta began laying out current student work alongside folders of artworks that had remained in storage for decades.
“Suddenly, we could see so many parallels between these artworks over time,” Lauren reflects. “It illuminated for me the privilege of guiding students through their creative practice. Each project is not simply a means to an assessment outcome; it becomes part of a much larger tapestry of creative experience.”
Visitors will encounter vibrant portraits by current Year 8 and Junior School students, sensitively-made works by senior Visual Art students, clay faces created by ELC children, and works by parents, staff and old scholars, including Lara Kittel and Isy James. Archival pieces include early works by celebrated Australian artist and old scholar Jeffrey Smart, portraits of former Headmaster Canon Ray, and bronze busts by old scholar Aamon Luca.
Rather than arranging the exhibition by age, chronology or experience, the curators have deliberately brought these works into conversation with one another.
“We wanted every artwork to be viewed with equal value,” Lauren says. “A ceramic portrait by a four-year-old artist can be celebrated alongside the work of Jeffrey Smart or an old scholar now practising professionally in the arts.”
Through Pulteney’s participation in SALA, the exhibition also connects this creativity with the wider South Australian arts community. “We want our students to understand that the work they create and the creative problems they solve are part of a bigger, real-world context,” Lauren explains.
Above all, The Portrait Assembly is an invitation to gather—to discover familiar and unfamiliar faces, and to celebrate the many individuals who make up Pulteney’s evolving creative story.
“We hope audiences will share our surprise and delight in discovering these many faces of Pulteney, and the students, staff, parents and old scholars who form part of that creative tapestry.”
The Portrait Assembly opens at 6.00pm on Thursday 6 August at Osmond Street Studios, with access via Gilles Street. Wine and refreshments will be served, and all are warmly invited to attend.