The Italian version, Premio.Celeste, boasts over 13,000 members, nearly 9,000 of whom are artists.  However, do not think only of painting when using the word ‘artist’, for Premio.Celeste features a whole range of different art genres, such as photography and graphic design, sculptor and installations, video and animation, and, of course, pictures.  The diversity is huge, and there is much to see.

As the name implies, artists can win cash prizes for their work, and this must help up their profiles both within, and outside of Italy.  An excellent idea.

Free Membership

Premio.Celeste

Membership of Premio.Celeste is free, and is not limited to artists alone, there are journalists, which is what I’m calling myself, seeing as I am starting to do some freelance journalism work, and blogging is not too far from journalism, when all is said and done.  Since joining, I’ve acquired 12 14 22 30+ friends, which is wonderful.  As you might imagine, many of these friends are artists.

Another nice aspect of the site is that the artists can post details of events featuring their work, however, many of the Italian artists only post details in Italian, which is a shame, as those visiting Italy might like to see the work of their preferred artist in the flesh, so to speak.  This is something I’m looking into changing, as I think it might be interesting for event details to be in English too.  If I get anywhere in this little quest, I’ll report here.

Friends

My profile is here: Italyisin, and if you do happen to have a spare few minutes, I suggest viewing some of the very interesting work by my Premio.Celeste friends, many of who are Celeste Prize winners.  These friends are, so far:

1. Alberto Mileti
2. Giuseppe Galli
3. Mauro Lacqua
4. Isovni Contemporary Visions
5. Marco Bellomi – Winner Celeste Prize Italy ‘09. Category: Painting
6. Antonio De Luca – Winner Celeste Prize Italy ‘09. Category: Photo & Digital Graphics
7. Steven Smith – International Friend
8. Leonardo Lenzi – Winner Celeste Prize Italy ‘09. Category: Photo & Digital Graphics
9. Gaetano Fiore
10. Barbara Karwowska -  Winner Celeste Prize Italy ‘07. Category: Painting
11. Gabriela Bodin
12. Maria Chiffi
13. Luciano Civettini
14. Jordi Fornies – International Friend – Winner Celeste Prize ‘09. Category: Painting
15. Juanita Capogna – Winner Celeste Prize Italy ‘09. Category: Painting
16. Cinzia Tomassini
17. Exhibitionow – Winner Celeste Prize Italy ‘08. Category: Photo & Digital Graphics.  Winner Celeste Prize Italy ‘08. Category: Video, Installation & Sculpture
18. Rossano Liberatore – Winner Celeste Prize Italy ‘09. Category: Painting
19. Vincenzo Baldini
20. Claudia Ibanez
21. Gabriella Ferlito – Winner Celeste Prize Italy ‘09. Category: Painting
22. K-soul – Cosmic Garden Holokinetics Laboratory.  Winner Celeste Prize Italy ‘09. Category: Video, Installation & Sculpture. Winner:  Celeste Prize 2009. Category: Video & Animation
23. Ilaria Messaggio
24. La Tavolozza – Centre for Art and Culture
25. Michele Lombardo – Winner Celeste Prize Italy ‘09. Category: Photo & Digital Graphics. Winner Celeste Prize Italy ‘08. Category: Video, Installation & Sculpture.
26. Daniele Gori -  Winner Celeste Prize International ‘09. Category: Painting
27. Adria – Winner Celeste Prize International ‘09. Category: Painting
28. Rinaldo Cirillo – Winner Celeste Prize ‘09. Category: Painting
29. Carapostol -
30. Paolo Dogà – Art Critic and Curator
31. Carlotta Castelletti

I thoroughly recommend art lovers take a look at the site.  Remember my Celeste Prize profile, where you will find the people listed above is here: Italyisin, so please spend a few minutes looking at the work of the artists listed.  If you like what you see, spread the word about the artist, Celeste Prize site and Italyisin.

A nice touch is the RSS feed for each artists’ ‘Gallery’ – look for ‘Opere‘ in Italian or ‘Artworks‘ in English.  Just click on the RSS symbol over on the right, and you will be notified via your browser, feed reader, or whatever you use to follow feeds, as and when the artist or artists you are following add something new.  If you have no idea what an RSS feed is – look at this video here: Using RSS, a post over on my Blog from Italy site.  Note too that you can alos

If you do not find something that appeals, I will be extremely surprised!  Happy browsing!  Beware, though, this site will have you whiling away many hours.  You have been warned!

Dependtendency – Call for Venice 2009 from celeste.prize on Vimeo.