Alice Tippit's solo exhibition "Rose Obsolete" at the DePaul Art Museum in Chicago features 23 small oil paintings, three murals, a neon sign, word drawings, and a series of 46 notepad drawings. The works toggle between multiple interpretations—snakes and smiles, blouses and pears, curtains and bodies—inviting viewers to see shifting forms like a psychological test. Tippit, born in 1975 near Kansas City and based in Chicago since 2006, paints each oil work in a single day without tape, achieving sharp edges and subtle layering that reward close looking.
The exhibition matters because it showcases Tippit's deep skepticism about language's ability to express human experience, using visual and verbal ambiguity to challenge fixed meanings. Her playful, erotic imagery and word pairings—such as the title "Rose Obsolete" itself—engage viewers in a game of perception and interpretation, reflecting broader contemporary conversations about meaning, identity, and the limits of communication in art.