Sten Lex is a duo of artists from Rome and Taranto in Italy. Both born in 1982, they work together since 2000. Considered as the pioneers of urban stencil in Italy, their work is mostly the product of individual pathways. Mixture of stencil and op art, Sten Lex’s monumental works are made from thousands of strips of paper and compose portraits of people that both artists have themselves photographed, found among family albums or that are merely anonymous people.
In a statement about their work Sten Lex share about their influences. “Impressionism was mainly characterised by the contrasts between the lights and shades that would fix the painter's feelings on the canvas. And, painting en plein air was particularly important to the impressionists. We were certainly influenced by the impressionist movement, but our main influences from a stylistic standpoint are the silk-screen printing and the pixel-based printing. Thanks to the software, we have been able to create some works we could not have done in any other way. In the past, we used to transform digital graphics in paintings by means of the stencils, but now we start from drawings and sketches and we try to make them similar to their original technique, only with more impulsiveness and by trying to erase any digital remainder.”
In 2008, Sten Lex showed at the Banksy Cans Festival bringing together 39 international artists including Prism, Blek Le Rat, Faile, Vhils, Vexta. It was in 2009 that Sten Lex have developed their technique combining collage, stencil and op art, creating unique works both poetic and powerful. In 2012, the Italian publishing house Drago published a complete monography about their work.
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