Made homebound by this disability he was unable to attend school and, recognizing his artistic skill while he was still a boy, his parents were able to arrange for art teachers to tutor him at home.

[1] Through hard work and perseverance he regained control over his leg by the age of twelve and at that time became the first pupil of the social realist painter Thomas Hart Benton.

During the 1930s and until the outbreak of World War II Celentano participated in group shows at galleries in New York, Detroit, Philadelphia, and other American cities.

[1][7] In his review of this show, the art critic for The New York Times, Edward Alden Jewell, included a painting of Celentano's called "Funeral" among ones that he especially recommended.

The Smithsonian's exhibition label says, "This painting fairly bursts with the raucous sounds, pungent smells, and vibrant characters of Manhattan's ethnic street life.

[4] Of this show a critic for the New York Sun said "He paints the humble domestic life that he knows with a frankness as to its happenings, a sympathy and a tireless eye for detail that command respect, if not enthusiasm.

[30][31] In 1940 he painted a large mural called Children in Constructive Recreation and Cultural Activity in Public School 150 (Long Island City, Queens).

[30][32] After the United States entered World War II he took a job in the art department of the Grumman Aircraft Corporation in Bethpage, Long Island, where he made a mural called The Flight of Man.