Chicago, IL | Curator-Led Tour of “Barbara Nessim: My Compass Is the Line” and “Alice Tippit: Rose Obsolete” with Ionit Behar

Gather with us at the DePaul Museum of Art for a curator-led tour of two exhibitions – Barbara Nessim: My Compass Is the Line and Alice Tippit: Rose Obsolete.

Since the 1960s, Barbara Nessim (b. 1939) has developed a unique visual language in painting and drawing that challenges traditional gender norms. As one of the first women to gain prominence in the male-dominated world of commercial art and illustration, Nessim’s work confronts stereotypes about femininity and sexuality, while also celebrating the agency of women. Barbara Nessim’s solo exhibition at DePaul Art Museum—her first one in Chicago—includes paintings, drawings, computer art prints, a site specific installation, with special emphasis on the artist’s sketchbooks or her “forever books,” as she calls them, which have been instrumental to her creative process.

​What is the difference between “looking” and “seeing”? How is meaning made and how do forms signify? These questions have concerned Chicago-based artist Alice Tippit (b. 1975) for more than a decade. Her paintings and works on paper generate multiple layers of meaning through poetic techniques like metaphor, serving as indirect references rather than clear, straightforward representations.  Included in this exhibition are a selection of Tippit’s works from the past ten years as well as new commissioned works. 

Ionit Behar is Curator at the DePaul Art Museum in Chicago, where she has organized numerous solo and group exhibitions, including Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle: A Want for Nothing (2025); Selva Aparicio: In Memory Of (2024); Life Cycles: DePaul Art Museum Collection (2023); A Natural Turn: María Berrío, Joiri Minaya, Rosana Paulino, and Kelly Sinnapah Mary (2022); Solo(s): Krista Franklin (2022); Claudia Peña Salinas: Quetzalli (2021); and LatinXAmerican(2021). Her recent independent projects include Del Otro Lado (2023) at O’Hare International Airport; 50 años (50 Years Since the Military Coup in Uruguay) (2023) at SUBTE in Montevideo; and Nelly Agassi: No Limestone, Nor Marble (2022) at the Chicago Cultural Center. Previously, she served as Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the Spertus Institute in Chicago and as a Research Assistant for Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium at the Art Institute of Chicago. Behar holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Illinois Chicago, an MA in Art History, Theory, and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Tel Aviv University.

Program Admission:

• General Admission – $25
• ArtTable Members – $15
• ArtTable Guests – $20

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All program registration fees go toward event expenses and administrative costs for the organization.