Agnes Cecile. Spirits at Chroma Mandrione, from September 26 to November 14, 2026

Agnes Cecile, Spirits is the new solo show by Roman painter Silvia Pelissero, known as Agnes Cecile: a selection of watercolors and acrylics on paper and canvas devoted to nature spirits, supernatural entities and subtle energies, on show at Chroma Mandrione, Via del Mandrione 103, block 89c, 00181 Rome, from September 26 to November 14, 2026. Admission is free and no reservation is needed. The city's tourism portal gives the hours as Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 15:00 to 19:00, and recommends always calling before you go to confirm that it is open. The number of the space is +39 366 170 1389, the email chroma.mandrione@gmail.com. The Mandrione can be reached from Villini railway station. For buses and other combinations, it's best to use the ATAC route planner. All updated information is on the official page of the exhibition.

Agnes Cecile is one of the most followed Italian painters in the world, and she became so starting from Rome and from the internet: her watercolors, published online since she was a girl, made her known well before the galleries did. Spirits brings her back to her city in a small, independent space, along a street with a powerful history, that of the Mandrione. For those who love watercolor it is an appointment to put in the calendar. For those who don't know this area of Rome, it is also the chance to discover it.

Agnes Cecile. Spirits: What You See

Spirits brings together a selection of works by Agnes Cecile made in watercolor and acrylic on paper or canvas, in a route that explores the relationship between the visible and the invisible, matter and presence, reality and imagination.

Intangible Presences

The space presents the exhibition as a universe inhabited by presences that do not let themselves be captured by the gaze: nature spirits, supernatural entities, subtle energies. The figures emerge and dissolve into the painted matter, and the inner landscape intertwines with the natural one.

The Japanese Influence

The imagery of the exhibition, Chroma explains, is deeply influenced by Japanese culture, in which the boundary between the human, the natural and the spiritual is permeable and rich in symbolic meaning. From it comes a narrative that alternates ethereal and contemplative atmospheres with darker and more unsettling images, between grace and mystery.

Watercolor as a Language

Watercolor, with its transparencies and its fades, is the ideal tool for these subjects: the lightness of the gesture coexists with a strong emotional tension. The spirits, in Agnes Cecile's work, are metaphors for the invisible forces that inhabit memory, emotions and landscape.

A New Chapter

Chroma presents Spirits as a new chapter in the artist's research, in which painting, myth and perception meet. Those who know Agnes Cecile from her female portraits will find her hand again. Those who discover her now will find a more visionary body of work.

Works for Sale

As in many galleries, the works are for sale: the official page offers the possibility of requesting the exhibition price list reserved for collectors.

Who Is Agnes Cecile: Biography and Career

Agnes Cecile is the artist name of Silvia Pelissero, born in Rome in 1991. A traditional painter who describes herself as self-taught, she works with watercolor, acrylic, ink and paint, and lives and works in Rome.

The Online Beginnings

Silvia Pelissero began drawing as a child. When she published her first watercolors online she signed them for the first time agnes-cecile. After art high school she continued to experiment with different techniques, and thanks to social networks she reached an international audience very early.

A Recognizable Style

Her portraits combine realistic faces with fluid pours of color and expressive drips. Each work, her website explains, is born from an intuitive gesture and develops like a visual diary. Chroma describes her as one of the most recognizable figures of contemporary watercolor painting, able to bring a technique considered intimist to the center of the artistic debate.

Solo Shows

She has exhibited regularly since 2011. Her first solo shows are in Rome, including those at the Agnes Cecile Gallery from 2012 and at the Serra Madre space in 2016 and 2017. Then Milan (2013), the Galeria Roja in Seville (2017 and 2018), the Art 87 Gallery in Andermatt, Switzerland (2018), CassArt in London (2019), Delicatessen at the Nero Gallery in Rome (2022), Onirica at the Victoria Olt Gallery in Tallinn (2024). Spirits, in 2026, is the most recent.

Group Shows

She has taken part in group shows in the United States, at the Phone Booth Gallery in Long Beach (2014 and 2015), at the Vertical Gallery in Chicago and in El Paso (2022), and in Europe in Tallinn, in London with The Print Space (2025), in Rome and in Fondi with the Nero Gallery.

Workshops and Retreats

An important part of her activity is teaching. Since 2012 she has taught watercolor workshops in Rome, Seville, Andermatt, London, Munich, Mantua, Padua and Tallinn, and since 2022 she has organized art retreats in Andalusia, Morocco, Occitania, Sicily and Tuscany. For more than 10 years she has been the Italian ambassador of the Winsor and Newton brand.

Books, Colors and Murals

In 2018 she published her first art book, which collects 10 years of work. In 2025 she developed an original color, Sakura Pink, with the French brand Lefranc Bourgeois, and used it for a mural in Paris. She has also made murals in Rome and in Lentini, in Sicily.

Watercolor Technique According to Agnes Cecile

The program of the workshops that Agnes Cecile teaches at Chroma is the most concrete description of her method: from the monochrome portrait to gradations, through to skin tones and the final creative portrait.

Three Ways of Wetting the Paper

The first day of the course is devoted to basic techniques: dry on wet, wet on wet, dry on dry. These are the combinations that determine if the color spreads, blends or stays sharp. In front of the works in Spirits you recognize all three: the frayed edges of the figures that dissolve, the soft fields of color, the precise details of the face.

Galaxies, Rainbows, Flowers

The second day tackles more complex techniques, such as galactic effects, rainbow gradations and floral overlays, and the construction of a minimalist portrait with natural elements, in which realism and imagination are integrated. It is exactly the visual grammar of Spirits, where the figures mingle with nature.

From Sketch to Finished Work

The third day is about skin tones and the path that goes from the idea to the sketch to the finished work, with the planning of the composition. Those who visit the exhibition after reading this program look at the watercolors with a different eye: behind the apparent spontaneity there is designed work.

The Rome of Agnes Cecile

Agnes Cecile was born in Rome and lives and works in Rome, and her exhibition career began in the city in 2011, with a solo show in an architecture, art and design studio.

The Years of Her Own Gallery

Between 2012 and 2014 she exhibits every year at the Agnes Cecile Gallery in Rome, and she returns there in 2017 with Calling for the water and in 2019 with a show titled X. In 2016 she presents The garden inside and a show at the Serra Madre space.

From the Sea to the Center

In 2018 she exhibits at La casa del mare in Ostia and at Vertecchi, in Rome. In 2022 she presents Delicatessen at the Nero Gallery, with which she also takes part in the group shows Visages in Rome and Metamorfosi in Fondi.

The Return with Spirits

After the shows in Tallinn and London, Spirits brings her back to Rome in 2026, this time in the outskirts, in an independent space in Municipio VII. In her official résumé the exhibition appears as Spirits, Chroma Gallery, Roma.

Agnes Cecile's Workshops at Chroma

On the occasion of the exhibition, Chroma Mandrione hosts two watercolor workshops with Agnes Cecile: one for beginners from October 2 to 4, 2026 and an advanced one from October 9 to 11, 2026, from 10:00 to 18:00.

Costs and Registration

One workshop costs €450, in two installments. The two workshops together cost €800. Places are limited and registration is done by writing to chroma.mandrione@gmail.com. The painting material, paper, colors and brushes, is provided by Winsor and Newton. Participants are asked to bring their own drawing material.

The Program

The beginners' course, taught in English, starts from the monochrome portrait and the study of the shadows of the face, moves on to natural elements and gradation effects, and arrives at skin tones and a complete personal portrait. It is a rare chance to see how an Agnes Cecile watercolor is born, a few meters from the finished works.

Chroma Mandrione: The Space

Chroma is a multipurpose space of about 100 square meters at the Mandrione, curated by Daphnée Thibaud, Stefano Patti and Amandine Ravasi, with two rooms: the main one for exhibitions and workshops, the second for the bookshop.

Exhibitions, Courses, Events

Chroma's program alternates exhibitions, workshops, painting courses, events and concerts, and a theater workshop. Before Spirits the space hosted shows such as Shaman, devoted to mythological animals, and Metamorphia.

An Address to Find

The address given by the space is Via del Mandrione 103, block 89c. Along the street the workshops follow one another, and the block number helps you get your bearings.

The Mandrione: History of a Street in Rome

The Mandrione is an urban area of Municipio VII, in the Tuscolano district, that takes its name from the street that runs through it from Via Casilina, at the height of the Pigneto, to Via Tuscolana, at the height of Porta Furba.

The Name

The place name recalls an old custom: taking herds to graze in the meadows that once surrounded the street.

The Felice Aqueduct

The street runs alongside the Felice Aqueduct, built between 1585 and 1587 at the wish of Pope Sixtus V, born Felice Peretti: it was the first aqueduct built in Rome after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. 24 kilometers long, it carried water to the Viminale and the Quirinale and to the Fountain of Moses. It fed the Triton Fountain, the Fountain of the Bees and the fountain of the goddess Roma on the Campidoglio. At Porta Furba, where the aqueduct crosses Via Tuscolana, stands the fountain of Clement XII.

The Shacks

After the bombing of San Lorenzo in 1943, displaced people built shacks under the arches of the Felice Aqueduct. In the following decades the Mandrione became one of the poorest and most marginal areas of the city.

The 1956 Investigation

In April 1956 the anthropologist Franco Cagnetta and the photographer Franco Pinna, with the support of the publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, carried out an investigation here that was followed by Elsa Morante, Goffredo Parise and Pier Paolo Pasolini. Pinna's photographs are considered among the most important of neorealist photography.

The Redemption

Between 1975 and 1984 the psychologist and educator Angelina Linda Zammataro led a long effort that brought the assignment of public housing to the families living in the shacks. Since then the Mandrione has become a residential area with workshops, repair shops and artisan laboratories, crossed by at least three railway lines.

How to Get to Chroma Mandrione

Chroma Mandrione is at Via del Mandrione 103, block 89c, 00181 Rome, in Municipio VII.

By Train

The Mandrione can be reached from Villini station. From there you continue on foot along the street.

By Bus and Metro

For the surface lines and the best combinations from your own starting point, the ATAC route planner is the right tool. The street connects the Casilina to the Tuscolana, and can be reached from both sides.

Before You Go

Call: the city's tourism portal recommends always calling before you go to confirm that it is open. The number is +39 366 170 1389.

Hours and Information for Visiting Spirits

Spirits can be visited from September 26 to November 14, 2026, with free admission and no reservation. According to the city's tourism portal the hours are Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 15:00 to 19:00.

Only Three Afternoons a Week

An independent space does not keep a museum's hours. Three afternoons a week mean a narrow window: organize yourself accordingly, and confirm that it is open by phone.

How Much Time You Need

For an exhibition in a space of 100 square meters, three quarters of an hour is enough. Watercolors, though, ask to be looked at closely: their transparencies can only be appreciated that way.

The Opening Night and the First Days

The exhibition opened with the vernissage on Saturday, September 26, 2026 at 18:00, followed by a special opening on Sunday, September 27 from 15:00 to 19:00. From then on the ordinary calendar of three afternoons a week applies, which the city's portal invites you to confirm by phone.

For Collectors

If you are interested in buying a work, you can request the exhibition price list directly from Chroma's official page, in Italian or in English. For an artist with such a wide following, the works of a Roman solo show are an opportunity that does not come often.

The Bookshop

The second room of the space is devoted to the bookshop: a chance to leaf through art books after the visit.

How to Organize Your Afternoon at the Mandrione

With the exhibition open from 15:00 to 19:00 three days a week, the afternoon at the Mandrione is organized around a one-hour visit and a walk along the aqueduct.

Before the Exhibition

If you arrive by train at Villini station, you can start with a few minutes on foot along the street, among workshops and repair shops, before entering Chroma.

After the Exhibition

On leaving, the arches of the Felice Aqueduct and, for those who feel like walking, Porta Furba with the fountain of Clement XII.

With Children

Agnes Cecile's watercolors, with their colors and their creatures of nature, can fascinate young people too. The space is intimate: a short visit is better.

Facilities and Accessibility

The space declares about 100 square meters across two rooms and two bathrooms. For information on accessibility, it's best to call +39 366 170 1389 before setting out.

A Curiosity About Agnes Cecile. Spirits at Chroma Mandrione, from September 26 to November 14, 2026

The curiosity is in the name. Silvia Pelissero signed agnes-cecile for the first time when she published her first watercolors online, still a girl: an artist name born for the internet, even before the galleries. It is thanks to social networks, her website says, that she soon reached a global audience. Today that name, without the hyphen, is recognized all over the world, and the artist has been the Italian ambassador of a historic color brand for more than 10 years.

A second curiosity concerns color. In 2025 Agnes Cecile developed an original color, Sakura Pink, together with the French brand Lefranc Bourgeois, and used it for a mural in Paris. The name of the color looks to Japan, the same cultural horizon that inspires Spirits. An artist who gives her name to a color is a rarity in contemporary painting.

The third curiosity is Roman: her exhibition career began in Rome in 2011, and after Seville, London, Andermatt and Tallinn she returns to Rome with a solo show on one of the streets of the outskirts most charged with history.

One Thing Nobody Tells You About Agnes Cecile. Spirits at Chroma Mandrione, from September 26 to November 14, 2026

What nobody says is that Chroma is not a gallery in the center, and the hours are few. The city's portal gives three afternoons a week, Thursday to Saturday, from 15:00 to 19:00, and recommends always calling first to confirm. It's not a formality: an independent space run by three people can have changes of program, events, workshops. A phone call saves a wasted trip.

The second thing is the address: the street number given by Chroma is 103, with the indication block 89c. Along Via del Mandrione the street numbers are not always obvious, and the block number makes the difference.

The third concerns the street itself. The Mandrione is not a tourist area, and for many Romans it remains a name tied to the black-and-white photographs of the 1950s. Today it is a street of workshops and laboratories, next to the arches of the Felice Aqueduct: going there for an exhibition is a good excuse to see it with new eyes.

The Advice I Give You for Visiting Agnes Cecile. Spirits at Chroma Mandrione, from September 26 to November 14, 2026

My advice is to arrive in the middle of a Saturday afternoon, around 16:00, after calling to confirm. You look at the exhibition at leisure, leaf through something in the bookshop, and at sunset you go out along the arches of the Felice Aqueduct, when the grazing light lights them up. It is a Rome that few tourists see, and it is worth the half hour of walking.

Second piece of advice: look at the watercolors up close, then from far away. Up close you see the pours, the drips, the transparencies. From far away the figures appear, the spirits that the title promises. It is the interplay between matter and presence that the exhibition text speaks of.

Third: if you paint, even as an amateur, consider the October workshops. Learning from an artist with this following, in the same space where her works are on show, is an experience that is hard to repeat.

Last piece of advice: combine the visit with the Pigneto, at the other end of the street. You go from the exhibition to an aperitivo in a few minutes.

Another Well-Known Fact, Yet Rarely Mentioned

It is well known that Pier Paolo Pasolini wrote about the Roman borgate. It is mentioned less often that the Mandrione is one of the places where he was most often photographed, strolling along the street and in the surrounding area, and that in April 1956 he closely followed, together with Elsa Morante and Goffredo Parise, the investigation by the anthropologist Franco Cagnetta and the photographer Franco Pinna. Those photographs, taken among the shacks under the arches of the Felice Aqueduct, are considered among the most important of photographic neorealism. Pasolini also wrote about it in Vie Nuove in 1958.

A second fact rarely told concerns the aqueduct. The Felice Aqueduct, which runs alongside the street, was the first built in Rome after the fall of the Western Empire: Sixtus V brought water back to the hills with a work of 24 kilometers. To build it, though, parts of the ancient aqueducts of the Aqua Marcia, the Tepula and the Iulia were destroyed. A story of rebirth and loss together, along the same street.

And one last fact: in 2022 La Lettura of the Corriere della Sera published a comic set in the Mandrione, L'anima della gemella. The street continues to inspire those who tell the story of Rome.

The Right Photo to Take at Agnes Cecile. Spirits at Chroma Mandrione, from September 26 to November 14, 2026

The right photo is a detail of a watercolor, at close range: a pour of color, a drip, the point where a figure dissolves into the paper. That is where you see Agnes Cecile's hand, and a detail photo tells her technique better than an overall view. Always ask the staff if photography is allowed, and no flash: direct light adds nothing to the transparencies of watercolor.

The second photo is outside, along Via del Mandrione: the arches of the Felice Aqueduct in the light of late afternoon. With the workshops built up against them, the nearby tracks and the stone of the aqueduct, it is an image of the Rome that lives with its own history without putting it in a shop window.

The third, for those who make it as far as Porta Furba, is the fountain of Clement XII at the crossing with the Tuscolana: the same fountain in front of which the comic published by La Lettura in 2022 is set. Three shots, and the day at the Mandrione is told.

Some Important Events That Took Place Here in History

Between 1585 and 1587 Pope Sixtus V had the Felice Aqueduct built, which runs along Via del Mandrione. The works, entrusted first to Matteo Bartolini and then, because of design errors, to Giovanni Fontana, brought water from Pantano, on Via Casilina, to the Quirinale and the Fountain of Moses.

In 1943, after the bombing of San Lorenzo, displaced people built shacks under the arches of the aqueduct: the borgata of the Mandrione was born. In the 1960s and 1970s, between the arches of the Felice Aqueduct, the Appio Claudio shantytown also arose.

In April 1956 Franco Cagnetta and Franco Pinna carried out here the photographic and anthropological investigation that was the beginning of a great project on the Roman borgate, also tied to the research of Giorgio Nataletti and Diego Carpitella on Roma music and dances.

Between 1975 and 1984 Angelina Linda Zammataro led the work that brought the families of the shacks into the public housing of Spinaceto. RAI devoted two documentaries by Gianni Serra to the Mandrione, Al margine and Essere zingari al Mandrione. The shacks were torn down, and the recovery of the area began. In 2026 an art space on the street hosts the solo show of one of the best-known Roman painters in the world.

Who Has Passed Through Agnes Cecile. Spirits at Chroma Mandrione, from September 26 to November 14, 2026

Through the Mandrione have passed some of the most important names of postwar Italian culture. Pier Paolo Pasolini, often portrayed walking along the street. Elsa Morante and Goffredo Parise, who followed the 1956 investigation. The publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, who supported it. The anthropologist Franco Cagnetta and the photographer Franco Pinna, who carried it out. With them, the ethnomusicologists Giorgio Nataletti and Diego Carpitella, who documented the music of the Roma community of the Casilina.

In the 1970s and 1980s Angelina Linda Zammataro worked here, devoting almost 10 years to the redemption of the people of the shacks. The director Gianni Serra shot two documentaries for RAI here.

And before all of them, ideally, Pope Sixtus V and the architects Matteo Bartolini and Giovanni Fontana, who built the aqueduct along which the street runs. Today at Chroma pass the artists hosted by the space curated by Daphnée Thibaud, Stefano Patti and Amandine Ravasi, and in the autumn of 2026 Agnes Cecile with her spirits: the Rome of Pasolini and that of contemporary watercolor, on the same street.

What to See Around Via del Mandrione

The Mandrione borders the Pigneto, Torpignattara, the Arco di Travertino and Villa Lais, and lends itself to a walk between archaeology and working-class neighborhoods.

The Pigneto

The Pigneto, where Via del Mandrione meets the Casilina, is a lively neighborhood in the evening: you'll find a description of it in event listings such as the Pigneto Comedy Fest.

The Parco degli Acquedotti

Following the Felice Aqueduct in your mind, you arrive at the Aqueducts Park, where Sixtus V's aqueduct runs alongside the ancient ones.

The Mandrione as a Place

A listing devoted to the area is that of Snodo Mandrione.

Where to Eat Near the Mandrione

Along Via del Mandrione the offer is limited. To eat, it's best to move toward the Pigneto or toward Via Tuscolana.

Aperitivo in the Pigneto

The Pigneto is the natural choice after an afternoon visit: the exhibition closes at 19:00, the right time for an aperitivo.

Toward the Tuscolana

On the other side, toward Porta Furba and the Tuscolana, you find neighborhood trattorias and pizzerias.

Frequently Asked Questions About Agnes Cecile. Spirits

When can you see the Agnes Cecile exhibition in Rome?

The Agnes Cecile exhibition Spirits is open at Chroma Mandrione from September 26 to November 14, 2026. According to the city's tourism portal the hours are Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 15:00 to 19:00. It's best to call first to confirm.

How much does it cost to enter Spirits?

Admission to the Agnes Cecile exhibition Spirits is free and no reservation is needed, as the official page of Chroma Mandrione states. The works are for sale, and the price list for collectors can be requested from the space's website.

Where is Chroma Mandrione?

Chroma Mandrione is at Via del Mandrione 103, block 89c, 00181 Rome, in Municipio VII. The area can be reached from Villini station. For buses and metro, it's best to use the ATAC route planner.

Who is Agnes Cecile?

Agnes Cecile is the artist name of Silvia Pelissero, a painter born in Rome in 1991, known around the world for her watercolor portraits. She has exhibited since 2011 in Italy and abroad, teaches workshops in Europe and is the Italian ambassador of Winsor and Newton.

Are there workshops with the artist?

Yes, at Chroma Mandrione Agnes Cecile teaches two watercolor workshops: beginners from October 2 to 4, 2026 and advanced from October 9 to 11, from 10:00 to 18:00. They cost €450 each, €800 together. Places are limited.

Do you need to book to see the exhibition?

No, for the exhibition Spirits at Chroma Mandrione you do not need to book: admission is free and no reservation is needed. The city's tourism portal does recommend always calling first to confirm that it is open, at the number +39 366 170 1389.

What do the works in Spirits depict?

The works in Spirits depict nature spirits, supernatural entities and subtle energies, with an imagery influenced by Japanese culture. They are watercolors and acrylics on paper or canvas in which the figures emerge and dissolve into the color.

What is there to see near the exhibition?

Near Chroma Mandrione are the arches of the Felice Aqueduct, built by Sixtus V between 1585 and 1587, the fountain of Clement XII at Porta Furba and, at the other end of the street, the Pigneto neighborhood.

The Final Advice on Agnes Cecile. Spirits

In our judgment the most beautiful exhibitions in Rome are not always in the center. Spirits brings a Roman painter known around the world to an independent space, on a street that has seen Pasolini, the shacks and the redemption. My advice is to call, go on a Saturday afternoon, look at the watercolors up close and then go out along the aqueduct at sunset: it is a Rome worth getting to know.

Article written by the editorial team of Tour Leader Pro, contact them for Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Tours and Experiences.

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