CAGES FOR THOUGHTS Rosita D'Agrosa 19.02 - 05.03.2026

Cages for Thoughts is the first exhibition by Rosita D'Agrosa (Salerno, 1989) at the Lucía Dueñas Gallery.

A graduate in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, she also received a scholarship from the Il Bisonte Foundation for lithography and graphic arts after completing her artistic training. During her academic years, she participated in several artist residencies in Spain, specifically in Cordillera, Lleida, and Artes by Mount.

Her artistic research is an ongoing exploration that combines painting, printmaking, and textile experimentation rooted in her family history. These techniques serve as both medium and language in her work, bridging the gap between poetry and the textile industry.

CAGES FOR THOUGHTS

In the series Cages for Thoughts (gabbie per i pensieri), the word is the object of investigation. Words, understood as "graphic expressions" of the linguistic code, allow the meaning of the written content to remain immutable and static over time. Precisely because of their capacity to preserve, rather than lose, their importance, the written word becomes a "repository" in the artist's imagination. Analyzing the concept of notes, memos, and annotations, D'Agrosa arrived at a very simple and banal reflection: "We write down everything we need to remember, everything we mustn't forget, and everything that is important."

It's no coincidence that this project was born in 2020, during lockdown, when we were all forced to isolate ourselves and maintain social distancing due to the pandemic. D'Agrosa created it with the only material she had available at the time: a metal mesh, on which, as a meditative and therapeutic exercise, she began to embroider her thoughts, her feelings, everything repressed and trapped at that moment. Transforming that mesh into a gift for the Other , she gave life to these light, ethereal, and flowery cages, in the form of message containers (in bottles) to send to her loved ones: “MI MANCHI” (I Miss You), “TI PENSO” (I Think of You), “ODI ET AMO” (I Hate and Love You), “NON AVER PAURA” (Don't Be Afraid), “DIVENTA CIÒ CHE SEI” (Become What You Are), or “NON TI SCORDAR DI TE!” (Don't Forget About Yourself!). They are short text messages, like those sent from mobile phones, intended to virtually fill the great void that isolation has forced us to experience.

DISOBEDITE
62 x 62 x 10 cm., metal mesh and cotton thread

This research has undergone some changes over the years. In her latest works, D'Agrosa has inserted graphic elements that interact in a more complex and less intuitive way with the embroidered messages, recreating a kind of emotional archive meticulously woven within the cages.

The works present a visual language that oscillates between the digital aesthetic of pixels and the ancestral patience of embroidery. Pop culture icons, classic roses, and direct messages coexist in a three-dimensional space where the shadow projected on the wall becomes an integral part of the artwork.

The Net : It represents the rational structure, the barriers that define our feelings. The Thread : It is the organic element, the emotion that "inhabits" the cage and transforms it, turning it into a suspended garden or a manifesto of rebellion. In this dialogue between metal and cotton, the viewer is prompted to reflect on their own "cages." Are they limits that suffocate us or spaces in which, despite everything, we have learned to let our deepest identity blossom?

"Cages for Thoughts does not celebrate confinement, but the indomitable capacity of human creativity to embroider its freedom, stitch by stitch, precisely where it seemed impossible.

The tension between the rigidity of iron and the softness of thread perfectly reflects our condition: a structure that protects while simultaneously exposing, a boundary that defines identity without erasing its vulnerability. They transform into ecosystems of resilience where thought ceases to wander and begins to build and flourish.

Rosita D'Agrosa