Daniel Celentano at the age of twelve was Thomas Hart Benton's first and youngest student. Celentano often focused on the Italian neighborhood of New York City where he was born and raised as the subject matter of his drawings, paintings and murals.He enjoyed an active career, exhibiting at all the major museums as an accomplished American Scene painter during the WPA and WWII era. His first one-man show was held in 1939 at the Walker Art Galleries. At the start of WWII, Celentano went to work at the Grumman Aircraft Plant, where he executed a mural on The Story of Flight. Studied:Thomas Hart Benton, 1914 (at age 12)Cape Cod School of Art with Charles Hawthorne, 1918New York School of Fine And Applied Art with Howard GilesNational Academy of DesignParsons School of DesignIvan OlinskyExhibitions and Awards:Alfred Stieglitz's Opportunity Gallery, New York City, 1930American Museum of Natural History, New York City, 1933Nassau County Art League, 1934 (prize)Brooklyn Museum, 1935Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1936-42Art Institute of Chicago, 1936-38, 1942Carnegie Institute, 1936-37, 1943Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1937, 1939Detroit Institute of Art, 1937Syracuse University, 1937Dayton Art Institute, 1939Whitney Museum of American Art, 1937, 1940-41Golden Gate Exposition, San Francisco, 1939Walker Art Center, 1936-37, 1938 (solo), 1939Ferargil Gallery, 1935, 1939 (solo)Parsons School of Design (New York City WPA Art), 1977Hofstra University, 1978Boston University, 1983Rhode Island School of Design, 1991Collections/work:Whitney Museum of American ArtNational Museum of American ArtHigh Museum, Atlanta, GeorgiaMurals: Cradle of Aviation Museum (Grunman Aircraft Mural), 1940s; Flushing (New York) Library, 1936; P.S. No.150, Sunnyside, Long Island, New York; U.S. post office Vadalia, Georgia, 1938