Ellen Powell Tiberino (1937-1992) was an African American artist who was figurative and expressionist in her pastels, oils, pencil drawings and sculptures. Her works were infused with the experiences and history of Black people, women in particular, whom she most often painted in dark and haunting hues. She was a prolific artist, working against time as she battled cancer for the last 14 years of her life.

Early life and education

Ellen Powell was born in Philadelphia in 1937 to William and Queenie Powell, sharecroppers who had moved to Philadelphia from Cape Charles, VA, just weeks before she was born. Her father brought his family north seeking better opportunities for his children. “We were looking for the same things as the European immigrants,” Ellen said in a 1989 interview. Her father was a truckman for the railroad and her mother was a homemaker. She was the third of seven children who grew up in the

Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...

section of

West Philadelphia West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Alhough there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the nort ...

. As a child, she drew pictures of family and friends. She also listened closely to tales of her family from such people as her great-aunt Lita who inspired her portraits and line drawings. Her parents told her that she could accomplish anything that she wanted. They were

Baptists Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

, but Ellen converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

around age 13. Her talent for art was acknowledged in junior and senior high school. At Sulzberger Junior High, she received a “small” check as an award for an original poster in a health contest. While a senior at Overbrook High in 1955, she returned to Sulzberger to speak to students about training courses available in senior high school. She brought along some of her

paintings Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

and

collages Collage (, from the french: coller, "to glue" or "to stick together";) is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. ...

, which featured fabric and materials on

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

. She graduated from Overbrook in 1956. As a teenager, she worked as a nurse’s aide at

Wills Eye Hospital Wills Eye Hospital is a non-profit eye clinic and hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was established in 1832 and is the oldest continually operating eye-care facility in the United States. It is the ophthalmology residency program for Tho ...

. Tiberino received a City of Philadelphia scholarship to attend the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Tiberino had been preceded at PAFA by a handful of Black students in the 20^th century -

Laura Wheeler Waring Laura Wheeler Waring (May 16, 1887 – February 3, 1948) was an American artist and educator, best known for her paintings of prominent African Americans that she made during the Harlem Renaissance. She taught art for more than 30 years at Che ...

, Morris Blackburn, Raymond Saunders and Louis B. Sloan. In the mid-19^th century, John Henry Smythe (Smyth) was the first Black student to be admitted to the academy. Artist

Moe Brooker Moe Albert Brooker (September 24, 1940 – January 9, 2022) was an African American painter, educator and printmaker. An abstract artist, he used vivid colors, lines, stripes, squares and circles to infuse a feeling of improvisational jazz in hi ...

, also a PAFA graduate, recalled her presence at the academy. He was “dazzled” by her, he said in the catalog for

Woodmere Art Museum Woodmere Art Museum, located in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has a collection of paintings, prints, sculpture and photographs focusing on artists from the Delaware Valley and includes works by Thomas Pollock Anshutz, S ...

’s 2015 exhibit “We Speak: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s-1970s.” “When she walked down the hall, everyone stopped! … She was the first student of color I remember when I was at PAFA because I was a couple years behind her.” Tiberino was awarded the prestigious

Cresson Traveling Scholarship The Cresson Traveling Scholarship, also known as the William Emlen Cresson Memorial Traveling Scholarship, is a two-year scholarship for foreign travel and/or study awarded annually to art students at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Phi ...

in 1959 and traveled through

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. She was 19 years old and in her third year at PAFA. She told the

Philadelphia Tribune ''The Philadelphia Tribune'' is the oldest continuously published African-American newspaper in the United States. The paper began in 1884 when Christopher J. Perry published its first copy. Throughout its history, ''The Philadelphia Tribune' ...

newspaper that she planned to go to

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

;

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

;

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, Italy, and other countries. She was the second African American woman to win the Cresson; the other was Laura Wheeler Waring (1914). Louis B. Sloan and Raymond Saunders also had been winners. While at PAFA, Tiberino studied under

Franklin C. Watkins Franklin Chennault Watkins (December 30, 1894 – December 4, 1972) was an American painter. Early life and education Born in New York City, Watkins was the son of Benjamin Franklin Watkins of Reidsville, North Carolina, and Shirley Chennault W ...

, Hobson Pittman and

Walter Stuempfig Walter Stuempfig (January 26, 1914 – November 29, 1970) was an American artist and teacher. Biography He was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on January 26, 1914, to a moderately wealthy family. After graduation from the Germantown Academy, he ...

. She graduated in 1961 and moved to New York. She remained in that city for six years, returning to Philadelphia to marry Joseph Tiberino, whom she had met at a going-away party for her NY move back in 1961. He was a white Italian-American artist born in Philadelphia who was attending the Philadelphia College of Art. They got married in 1967. Some of her friends tried to talk her out of marrying him, telling her that it would ruin her art and impede her growth. It enhanced her growth, she said in a 1989 interview, because he was supportive of her work. His being of another race didn’t bother her, she said, noting that the color of his skin was the least important thing to her. Compatibility was more significant, she said. Tiberino named two of her sons after her favorite 15^th-century

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

painters: Raphael and Leonardo. Joseph named their daughter after Ellen. The couple had a third son, Gabriel.

Her art

Tiberino was one of Philadelphia’s most notable artists, a “major talent with a paintbrush or a pencil,” wrote a Philadelphia Inquirer art critic in 1999. Her works were not delicate, the critic noted, but were infused with empathy and tenderness. Another critic described her art as tumultuous and staccato, with menacing and shadowy figures. It was purposefully meant to disturb, the critic stated. She was a figurative, stylized expressionistic artist who produced oils, pastels, pencil drawings and bas-relief sculptures. She also produced prints of some of her works. Among her subjects were young girls becoming aware of their bodies, Black women in pregnancy and motherhood, neighborhood people expressing joy and sorrow, African American life and strife, and her Catholic faith. She chose her subjects from her experiences - stories she heard, photographs she saw and people she observed. Some were people on West Philadelphia street corners, inside New York speakeasies, participating in Sunday High Mass and Baptist funerals. Her husband Joseph noted that her earliest paintings were dark in tone, so much so that her subjects were barely distinguishable. She painted what she felt and observed, she once said, not what others wanted her to portray. She created a painting titled “The Lynching” because she felt a need to do it, she told an interviewer. She didn’t expect anyone to buy it, she added, but it sold to a private collector. It is now in the collection of the Museum of African American Art in Tampa, FL.

“When I am asked where I get my inspiration, I say it’s all my life, my friends, everything I’ve seen and known. And I want to make it all come together and make sense and make people see. There’s a feeling of joy that comes with it. I don’t think enough credit is given to the real things in life, what I base my work on. Many people want only beauty around them, and I record life." …" I’ve never sold myself short. I paint to please no one but myself, and I have done more meaningful work because of it. I paint life, and life is not always beautiful.”

In 1978, when she was 40 years old and the mother of three children, Tiberino was diagnosed with cancer. She was told that she had six to 12 months to live. For the next 14 years, cancer was a presence in her life. She battled it while she painted, sometimes from her bed at home and in the hospital. Her first painting after the diagnosis was “The Operation,” circa 1980, a busy scene of doctors and nurses surrounding a sick patient as Death awaits alongside them. Her illness had a profound effect on her life and her work. She wrote in a profile in a catalog for October Gallery: “My art and life are intertwined. I cannot divorce Ellen Powell Tiberino the artist from Ellen Powell Tiberino the wife, mother and friend. My work is my way of seeing everything. I relate best through my art. It is both a blessing and a curse. Illness is so much a part of my life with which I have had to come to terms. Respect for time has become so important to me. So many of my drawings (paintings) are in my head, and I worry that I can’t get them all done. There is an urgency now that I didn’t feel before. Before I finish one piece, I am ready to start another. My creative impulse continues to grow, and I know my work is better.” She made the pencil drawing "Farewell to Ethiopia" because she knew that she would never get a chance to visit the African country. For several years, Tiberino signed her works “Ellen Tiberino,” but soon began including “Powell” in deference to her father and mother, she told an interviewer. Later, she created a pencil drawing of her mother titled "Queenie."

The MOVE sculpture

Tiberino’s most controversial work was a collaboration with Joseph of a seven-foot relief sculpture depicting their interpretation of the

MOVE bombing The 1985 MOVE bombing was the destruction of residential homes in the Osage neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, by the Philadelphia Police Department during a standoff and firefight with the radical communal organization MO ...

in 1985, which led to the deaths of five children & six adults in Philadelphia. The sculpture - titled “The MOVE Confrontation,” created in 1986 – depicted people engulfed in flames, Mayor W. Wilson Goode, a Death mask and horrified spectators. It was hung in the

Temple University School of Law The Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law is the law school of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1895 and enrolls about 530 students. Student body Admission for fall 2019 entering class was highly comp ...

building as a

Black History Month Black History Month is an annual observance originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It has received official recognition from governments in the United States and Canada, and more recently ...

exhibit. It created controversy in the city and produced headlines across the country. She said that they created the piece to express the pain they felt at watching the bombing of the MOVE compound. She speculated that it caused an uproar because Goode was still in office at the time. "I’m not a politician; I’m an artist. I must record what I see," she told an interviewer a few years later. Tiberino also created paintings with brilliant colors and softer themes. These included “Perfect Day” with a huge bouquet of flowers; “Mother and Child,” showing the intimacy of motherhood; “Heart of the Day” with soft purples and oranges, and animals. “The Cock Crows (1988) ” was included in the 2022 exhibit “Don’t Feed the Art: Woodmere’s Animal Menagerie” at the Woodmere Art Museum.

Collaborations with artist-husband Joseph Tiberino

In addition to the MOVE sculpture, Tiberino collaborated and exhibited often with her husband Joseph. He specialized in

murals A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spanish ...

and

portraits A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...

. They were considered the "

Frida Kahlo Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by the country's popular culture, ...

and

Diego Rivera Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...

” of West Philadelphia. They created an artistic compound of houses and structures in Powelton Village in West Philadelphia where they decorated the walls with paintings, murals, relief sculptures and other artwork. They also decorated their living space, patio, gardens and yards with art and sculptures. Begun in the early 1980s, it was a haven and meeting spot for both aspiring and seasoned artists, as well as friends. They held gallery openings on "Second Friday" and gallery walks. A devout Catholic, Tiberino set up a chapel to receive

Holy Communion The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instituted ...

from the parish priest. She told an interviewer in 1989 that she got her courage from her faith. Even before the compound, Tiberino and Joseph had converted a drugstore in Powelton Village called “The Building” for workshops led by artists and for group shows. Over the years, she taught art classes in the community, at her son Raphael's school, at her home on Saturdays and at one point, at her studio. In 1991, she exhibited with Joseph, their son Raphael and four other artists at Galerie Nadeau as members of the Rambla Group, which also included Earl Wilkie. It was a group of artists who gathered for support and to share techniques.

Ellen Powell Tiberino Memorial Museum of Contemporary American Art

Tiberino died on Feb. 28, 1992. Joseph opened the Ellen Powell Tiberino Memorial Museum of Contemporary American Art in her honor in 1999, inspired after he visited the

Barnes Museum The Barnes Foundation is an art collection and educational institution promoting the appreciation of art and horticulture. Originally in Merion, the art collection moved in 2012 to a new building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Penn ...

then in Merion, PA. It was a dream of his and her friends, including artist Laura Williams Chassot. The museum is part of the compound in Powelton Village. It hosts exhibits and offers a space for friends, artists and neighbors to drop in to discuss their art or to just hang out.

Early and prominent exhibitions

While still at the academy, Tiberino exhibited at small venues and homes in the Philadelphia area. In 1960, the Citizens Service Committee sponsored an exhibit at a home to show off the city’s young Black artists and their contributions to the art world. She was joined by artist/illustrator Robert Jefferson, Arthur Morgan, Gene Reynolds, Bernard Harmon, Eugene Solomon, Irma Wilson, Sandy Moon, Alonzo Perrin, Robert Forrest and sculptor Tony Barber. When she moved to New York in 1961, she painted and exhibited in the city. She participated in a show at the Lynn Kottler Gallery in 1963 that featured oil paintings titled “Two Figures” and “Poochie,” which “are attracting much comment,” the

New York Amsterdam News The ''Amsterdam News'' (also known as ''New York Amsterdam News'') is a weekly Black-owned newspaper serving New York City. It is one of the oldest newspapers geared toward African Americans in the United States and has published columns by s ...

reported. She had a solo show in Goldstein Gallery in Philadelphia in 1963 where she exhibited 16 oils and 19 drawings. Three years later, she was among young Black artists and students chosen to exhibit at William Penn Memorial Museum in Harrisburg by the mayor’s Committee on Human Relations. Others included Moe Brooker,

Barbara Bullock Barbara J. Bullock (1938) is an African American painter, collagist, printmaker, soft sculptor and arts instructor. Her works capture African motifs, African and African American culture, spirits, dancing and jazz in abstract and figural forms. She ...

, Walter Edmonds, Charles Pridgen, Percy Ricks, Leroy Johnson, John Simpson, Maurice Thompkins, Gwendolyn Joyce Daniels and Tina Lloyd King. In 1963, she was selected to exhibit in PAFA’s Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpturing, joining Louis B. Sloan and Raymond Saunders. In 1969, Tiberino was among 100 Black artists from across the country to participate in the exhibit “Afro-American Artists 1800-1969” sponsored by the

School District of Philadelphia The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) is the school district that includes all school district-operated public schools in Philadelphia. Established in 1818, it is the 8th largest school district in the nation, by enrollment, serving over 200 ...

and the Philadelphia Civic Center Museum. It included works by some of the country’s top artists, including

Horace Pippin Horace Pippin (February 22, 1888 – July 6, 1946) was a self-taught American artist who painted a range of themes, including scenes inspired by his service in World War I, landscapes, portraits, and biblical subjects. Some of his best-known work ...

, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet,

Jacob Lawrence Jacob Armstead Lawrence (September 7, 1917 – June 9, 2000) was an American painter known for his portrayal of African-American historical subjects and contemporary life. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", although by his own ...

Benny Andrews Benny Andrews (November 13, 1930 – November 10, 2006) was an African-American artist, activist and educator. Born in Plainview, Georgia, Andrews earned a BFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1958, and soon after m ...

Roland Ayers Roland Ayers (1932–2014) was an African American watercolorist and printmaker. He is better known for his intricate drawings – black-ink figures of humans and nature intertwined in a dream-like state against a neutral backdrop. A poet and love ...

Romare Bearden Romare Bearden (September 2, 1911 – March 12, 1988) was an American artist, author, and songwriter. He worked with many types of media including cartoons, oils, and collages. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bearden grew up in New York City a ...

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, Barkley Hendricks, Paul Keene, Raymond Saunders, Louis B. Sloan,

Ed Wilson Ed Wilson is an American media executive. He has been President of Chicago-based Tribune Broadcasting and has held top-level executive roles with Fox Television Network, NBC Enterprises and CBS Enterprises. Wilson sits on the Board of the USO ...

Henry Ossawa Tanner Henry Ossawa Tanner (June 21, 1859 – May 25, 1937) was an American artist and the first African-American painter to gain international acclaim. Tanner moved to Paris, France, in 1891 to study at the Académie Julian and gained acclaim in Fren ...

and Joshua Johnson. That same year, she exhibited in Lincoln University’s first Black Arts Festival, a major exhibit of Black artists in the

Delaware Valley The Delaware Valley is a metropolitan region on the East Coast of the United States that comprises and surrounds Philadelphia, the sixth most populous city in the nation and 68th largest city in the world as of 2020. The toponym Delaware Val ...

. The show included works by

Sam Gilliam Sam Gilliam ( ; November 30, 1933 – June 25, 2022) was an American color field painter and lyrical abstractionist artist. Gilliam was associated with the Washington Color School, a group of Washington, D.C.-area artists that developed a form ...

, Romare Bearden, James Gadson, John Cook, John Wade, John Simpson, Walter Edmonds, Moe Brooker, Simmie L. Knox and Percy Ricks. In 1971, she participated in Percy Rick’s “Afro American Images 1971” show at the State Armory in

Wilmington, DE Wilmington (Unami language, Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North ...

. The show by Rick's Aesthetic Dynamics Inc. featured 75 artists from New York to Washington, DC, with 150 pieces of artwork. The artists included Randall Craig, an organizer of the 1969 exhibition in Philadelphia;

Lois Mailou Jones Lois Mailou Jones (1905-1998) was an artist and educator. Her work can be found in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum o ...

, James L. Wells, Charles W. White, Norman Lewis,

Samella Lewis Samella Sanders Lewis (February 27, 1923 – May 27, 2022) was an American visual artist and art historian. She worked primarily as a printmaker and painter. She has been called the "Godmother of African American Art". She received Distinguished ...

and Edward Loper Sr. The exhibit was re-created in 2021 at the

Delaware Art Museum The Delaware Art Museum is an art museum located on the Kentmere Parkway in Wilmington, Delaware, which holds a collection of more than 12,000 objects. The museum was founded in 1912 as the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts in honor of the artis ...

in partnership with Aesthetic Dynamics. In 1977, Tiberino was the first artist to hold a solo exhibition at the

Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum The Afro-American Historical and Cultural Society Museum is located is on the upper floor of the Greenville Branch of the Jersey City, New Jersey Public Library, its collection is dedicated to the African American experience. The museum has galler ...

, showing more than 40 paintings and drawings. The museum described her work as “infused with great emotion and passion. Her paintings and drawings with their soft, dark blustery lines strike the viewer with an immediate sense of the subject’s physical and spiritual integrity.” In 1986, her works were in the exhibition “U.S. Art Census ’86: Contemporary African-American Artists” at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The show accompanied a meeting of the National Conference of Artists in Philadelphia. Other artists featured were Moe Brooker, Walter Edmonds, James Dupree,

Nanette Carter Nanette Carolyn Carter, born January 30, 1954, in Columbus, Ohio, is an African-American artist and college educator living and working in New York City, best known for her collages with paper, canvas and Mylar (archival plastic sheets). Daughte ...

, Deryl Daniel Mackie and

Charles Searles Charles Robert Searles (July 11, 1937 – November 27, 2004) was an African American artist born in Philadelphia in 1937. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and was active from the 1960s until he died in 2004 from complications fr ...

. In 1992, she was represented in an exhibit of 19^th and 20^th-century African American artists at the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

, which featured works from its collection and on loan. Included was her portrait of Sister Geneva, a Black missionary who worked in

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

. Titled “Works by African Americans,” the museum exhibit also included Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Paul Keene,

Howardena Pindell Howardena Pindell (born April 14, 1943) is an American artist, curator, and educator. She is known as a painter and mixed media artist, her work explores texture, color, structures, and the process of making art; it is often political, addressing ...

, Betty Saar,

Carrie Mae Weems Carrie Mae Weems (born April 20, 1953) is an American artist working in text, fabric, audio, digital images and installation video, and is best known for her photography. She achieved prominence through her early 1990s photographic project ''Th ...

Bill Traylor William Traylor (April 1, – October 23, 1949) was an African-American self-taught artist from Lowndes County, Alabama. Born into slavery, Traylor spent the majority of his life after emancipation as a sharecropper. It was only after 19 ...

, William Hawkins,

William Edmondson William Edmondson (c. 1874–1951) was the first African-American folk art sculptor to be given a one-person show exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City (1937). Biography Edmondson was born sometime in December 1874 on the Compt ...

, Rev. William Gayles, Ned Cheadham and Furman Humphrey. A few weeks before she died on Feb. 28, 1992, her works were on exhibit in five spaces: October Gallery, Lucien Crump Art Gallery, Heritage Art Gallery, Hahn Gallery and the

Free Library of Philadelphia The Free Library of Philadelphia is the public library system that serves Philadelphia. It is the 13th-largest public library system in the United States. The Free Library of Philadelphia is a non-Mayoral agency of the City of Philadelphia gove ...

. The Free Library exhibit featured prints by Delaware Valley Black artists from its collection, including

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Claude Clark Claude Clark (November 11, 1915 – April 21, 2001) was an American painter, printmaker and art educator. Clark's subject matter was the diaspora of African American culture, including dance scenes, street urchins, marine life, landscapes, an ...

, Samuel J. Brown Jr., Raymond Steth,

, Benjamin Britt, Reba Dickerson Hill, Tom McKinney, Columbus Knox, Dressler Smith, Cal Massey, Howard N. Watson, Joseph Holston and Sam Byrd.

Posthumous exhibitions

Since her death, Tiberino's works have been exhibited in several solo and group shows. In 2000, the Philadelphia Museum of Art held a group show of prints and drawings by African Americans. Two of her works, which had never been exhibited, were shown: “Ethiopian Dancer” and “Farewell to Uncle Cliff.” Other artists represented included Samuel J. Brown Jr., Charles Burwell, Quentin Morris, Howardena Pindell, Charles Searles, Humbert Howard, Raymond Steth and Dox Thrash. Tiberino’s works were presented in two exhibits encompassing her family. In 2007, Sande Webster Gallery produced “The Tiberino Family: A Legacy of Art,” which included Joseph, and children, Raphael, Ellen and Gabriel. In 2013, the African American Museum in Philadelphia told the story of the family and its connection to the city and the Black community. The show, titled “The Unflinching Eye: Works of the Tiberino Family Circle,” was a 50-year retrospective of a family that has been called the “West Philly Wyeths.” In 2015, she was represented in the Woodmere Art Museum’s “We Speak: Black Artists in Philadelphia 1920s to 1970s.” In 2021, she was included in the re-staging of Percy Ricks’ exhibit “Afro-American Images 1971” at the Delaware Art Museum.

Selected Exhibitions

Studio 13, 1962 Lynn Kottler Gallery (NY), 1963 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1963, 1986 Goldstein Gallery, 1964 William Penn Memorial Museum (Harrisburg, PA), 1966 L Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1992, 2000 Lincoln University, 1969 Philadelphia Civic Center Museum, 1969 Gallery 252, 1970 State Armory (Wilmington, DE), 1971 Custom Frame Shop and Gallery, 1972, 1973,1982 Acts of Arts Gallery (NY), 1973 Ile-Ife Museum of Afro-American culture, 1975, 1981 African American Museum in Philadelphia, 1977, 2004 Thompson Park Visitors Center (NJ), 1976 Philomathean Society Art Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, 1978

Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a long-established research facility, based in Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chronicles, maps, press reports and v ...

, 1980 Alfred O. Deshong Museum (Widener University), 1981

Painted Bride Art Center The Painted Bride Art Center, sometimes referred to informally as The Bride, is a non-profit artist-centered performance space and gallery particularly oriented to presenting the work of local Philadelphia artists, which presents dance, jazz, w ...

, 1983 Off The Wall Gallery, 1985 Temple University School of Law, 1986 Upstairs Gallery at Bacchanal, 1985, 1987, 1989 Free Library of Philadelphia, 1988, 1992 Uptown Visual Arts Complex, 1988 Uptown Theater, 1989 623 Gallery at Try Arts, 1990 Hahn Gallery, 1991, 1992 October Gallery, 1990, 1991, 1992 Woodmere Art Museum, 2009, 2015, 2017, 2022

Trenton City Museum Mansion House (also referred to as Ellarslie and McCall House) is a historic residence located in Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. The house was built as a summer residence for Henry McCall Sr. of Philadelphia in 1848, and i ...

at Ellarslie (NJ), 2015 Twenty Two Gallery, 2018

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) b ...

(NY), 2019 Delaware Art Museum, 2021

Selected Collections

Philadelphia Museum of Art Museum of African American Art (Tampa, FL) Free Library of Philadelphia Delaware Art Museum

Cheyney University Cheyney University of Pennsylvania is a public historically black university in Cheyney, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1837, it is the oldest university out of all historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the United States. It is a mem ...

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Powell Tiberino, Ellen 1937 births 1992 deaths African-American women artists Artists from Philadelphia 20th-century American painters Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni 20th-century American women artists 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American painters