Sten & Lex

Sten (born 1982, Rome) and Lex (born 1982, Taranto), known as Sten & Lex, are two Italian street artists. Sten & Lex have been doing stencils on the street since 2000/2001 and today their work is part of the urban landscape in London, Paris, Barcelona, New York City, and in their home town of Rome. During that early period in Rome, and Italy in general, there wasn't a strong stencil culture such as there was in France, and Sten & Lex are seen by many 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 a classic writing and graffiti background. The duo are best known in the history of stencil-making for introducing the halftone stencil technique, in which the greater part of their stencil portraits is composed of thousands of lines. They usually produce portraits of anonymous people they have photographed themselves or found in family photos album.