1937-1992
Works in the Collection
Biography
Ellen Powell Tiberino was born in 1937 and graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) in 1959. The artist is known for her large-scale paintings, three-dimensional murals, and sculptures that depict African American history. Her work often focuses on Black women and girls, that explore themes of motherhood, pregnancy, and childhood within her neighborhood communities. Tiberino’s art has been exhibited at institutions including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, and the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies to name a few.
Tiberino was the first Black woman awarded the PAFA Cresson Traveling Scholarship in 1959. Her artworks are held in exhibitions throughout Philadelphia, notably at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. After Tiberino died in 1992, her family opened a museum named after her that was established in 1999, called the Ellen Powell Tiberino Memorial Museum of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.