“Trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), family matriarch Ellen Powell Tiberino — who passed away in 1992 — was one of Philadelphia’s most prominent and prolific artists, whose depictions of the world captured the pain and beauty of the human existence. She was once quoted in a 1988 interview as saying, “I paint life, and life is not always beautiful.” Tiberino was an unapologetic artist who forced the viewer to examine what was moving in the ordinary. Ellen Tiberino and her husband Joseph worked in a variety of mediums: drawing, oil and watercolor painting, mixed media murals and mosaics.

The Tiberino family — parents (now deceased) Ellen Powell & Joseph — and children — — also artists — sons Raphael, Latif and Gabe and daughter Ellen — have been creating art in their Powelton Village neighborhood for more than half a century.”

Tiberino Museum