Alice Tippit’s Mischievous Erotics

CHICAGO — I often felt like I was undergoing psychological testing while visiting Rose Obsolete, Alice Tippit’s solo exhibition at the DePaul Art Museum. The show includes a trio of murals, a neon sign, and an extensive set of word drawings, but its core is made up of 23 smallish oil paintings that function not unlike a Rubin’s vase or one of the other ambiguous images developed by Gestalt psychologists in the early 20th century. Do you see a rabbit or a duck, two faces or a candlestick, a young woman or a crone, the therapist asks, and the answer says something not only about human perception but also about you.