sten lex

STEN LEX

Magda Danysz GalleryParis - Shanghai

Sten (Rome, 1982) and Lex (Taranto, 1982), known as Sten and Lex, are two Italian artists. Sten & Lex have been doing stencils on the street since 2000 and today their work is part of the urban landscape in their home town of Rome, London, Paris, Barcelona, New York. During that early period in Rome, and Italy in general, there didn’t exist a strong stencil culture such as there was in France and Sten & Lex may be considered as the pioneers of "Stencil Graffiti" in Italy and were the first to be considered "stencil artists". All the work of Sten & Lex results from an individual path that developed far from art academies and design institutes and far from classic writing and graffiti background. The duo are best known in the history of stencil making for introducing the halftone stencil technique where the main part of their stencil portraits are composed by thousands of lines. They usually produce portraits from people they have photographed themselves or found in family photos album, anonymous people.

In 2008 they took part at the Cans Festival: Banksy called thirty-nine artists from around the world, including, Prism, Blek Le Rat, Faile, Vhils, Vexta, they exhibited their works in an abandoned tunnel near Leake Street in South East London.

In 2009 the started producing what they call "Stencil Poster". The technique derives from the union of two of the main techniques of street art: Stencil and Poster. They glue a stencil cut on paper on the wall and then they paint on it and destroy the matrix. The matrix is destroyed and its scraps become part of the work itself. With this technique, the work becomes unique because the matrix remains on the wall, and is worn out in time. The shape can no longer be reproduced, which is, on the contrary, one of the characteristics of the stencil.

STEN LEXStencil cut out and paint

unique piece100x60cm

2012



2012


unique piece42x29,5cm

2010



2010



2012


unique piece42x29,5cm

2010



2012


unique piece69x47cm

2011


unique piece69x40cm

2011


unique piece69x47cm

2011



2012


unique piece97x58cm

2012


unique piece100x55m

2012

sten lex

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