Meet the family Ellen Powell &
Joe tiberino The Tiberino Art Family, often called “the West Philly Wyeths,” is a multigenerational creative force whose story is rooted in both love and relentless creativity. At the center is matriarch Ellen Powell Tiberino (1937–1992), a trailblazing African American painter and sculptor. Trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Ellen created bold figurative works that confronted race, faith, family, and social justice. Her paintings and reliefs—often large, emotional, and unflinching—capture both the tenderness and the tension of Black life in Philadelphia.

Patriarch Joseph (Joe) Tiberino (1938–2016) matched that energy with his own prolific output as a painter and muralist. He helped transform their Powelton Village home into the Ellen Powell Tiberino Memorial Museum of Contemporary Art, an art-filled compound of murals, mosaics, and sculptures that functions as both museum and neighborhood gathering space.

Their children—Raphael, Ellen, Gabriel, Leonardo—and an extended “family circle” of artists have continued the legacy through painting, mosaics, film, public art, and teaching. Together, the Tiberinos have turned one West Philadelphia block into a living, breathing artwork and helped shape the city’s visual identity—cementing their status as “Philadelphia’s First Family of Art.”