Celeste Olalquiaga is a Venezuelan-born independent scholar. She is the author of The Artificial Kingdom: A Treasury of the Kitsch Experience (1999) and Megalopolis: Contemporary Cultural Sensibilities. [1] She received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1994 [2] and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1996. [3] She writes the column "Object Lesson" for the publication Cabinet. [4]