Sten·Lex
Sten Lex have been making stencils on the street in Rome since 2001.
At that time, in Italy, the stencil technique was little used in the street as an art form, which is why Sten Lex are considered to be among the main spreaders of Italian 'Stencil Graffiti'.
The duo is internationally known for having introduced the use of mezzotint in stencils since 2002. The graphic processing, which they call Hole School, consists of cutting out an image composed of dots or lines: a portrait thus appears realistic from afar, abstract from close up.
In an early period, their artistic research was inspired by both classical engravers, such as Dorè and Piranesi, and contemporary artists such as Warhol, who used silkscreen printing as the main medium in his la-vories. The subjects of their works are anonymous characters, photographed by themselves or rediscovered in old photographic archives, painted in black-and-white stencils and the result of research into occi-dental photographic portraits from the 1960s to the present day.
From 2006 to 2008, they organised, together with Lucamaleonte, three editions of International Poster Art, at-taping hundreds of posters from all over the world on the walls of Esc, an occupied atelier in Rome. In 2008, Banksy invited them to participate in the Cans Festival in London together with a group of artists specialised in 'Stencil Graffiti'.
Since 2010, Sten Lex have been making stencils cut out on paper and pasted on walls. After using both stencils and posters as media for years, the duo created a process they call Stencil Poster. The process consists of putting up a poster in the street, a poster made up of lines or dots; the po-ster is cut out by hand on the very wall to which it is applied; the paper stencil, once cut out, is painted black and finally destroyed to make room for the final work. The concept behind this process is that atmospheric agents, such as rain and wind, slowly destroy the matrix over time, revealing the final work as the matrix dissolves. The essential meaning of the "stencil", which is considered a technique for reproducing the same image several times, is thus taken to a paradox in that by destroying the matrix, which is also part of the work, its reproducibility is lost. In 2008 and 2010 they participated in the Nuart Festival together with other artists including Blek le Rat, Nick Walker, Dolk, D-Face, Chris Stain, Blu, Ericailcane, Vhils and Roa.
Since 2010 they have produced a series of portraits of anonymous people on building facades, such as in Sta-vanger, Køge, Baltimore, Atlanta, Poznan and Katowice.
In 2012 they realised an exterior façade inside the Macro Museum in Rome under the direction of Pietromarchi and in the same year they exhibited their work at the Danysz Gallery in Paris.
In 2013, they exhibited in a single show at the Danysz Gallery in Shanghai. Starting with the latter mo-stra, the duo began working on abstract forms, taking up both the technique and the structure composed of lines that had characterised most of their previous portraits. The first large-scale work in this abstract series was made on the Palazzo dell'Economia in Bari in 2013 for the Doppelgaen-ger gallery. Also in 2013, they participated in the Outdoor Festival in Rome with the work 'Industrial Landscape' and in the City Leaks festival in Cologne with another 'Industrial Landscape'.
In 2014, the Italian Cultural Institute called them to create a façade in Shanghai. The wall, titled 'Volcano', covers 8 floors and marks the beginning of a moving path for the duo. In 2014, they painted 'Arazzo' at the Foro Italico in Rome under the curatorship of Pietromarchi and Alicata.
The new abstract works are shown in group exhibitions in museums of contemporary art such as the Maco in Oaxaca, Mexico, the Caixa Cultural in São Paulo, Brazil, and the Cafa Museum in Beijing. In 2015, the duo inaugurated a single show at the Wunderkammern Gallery in Rome and one at the Celaya Bro-thers Gallery in Mexico City. In both exhibitions, in addition to abstract landscapes, paper 'Matrices' installed between two pieces of glass are exhibited for the first time. Some of the works on show in 2015 are reproduced on a large scale on walls in Rome, Stazione Ostiense - 'Urban Landscape VIII' - and Mexico City in the Roma district - 'Urban Landscape IV'. 2015 is also the year in which the duo is asked to create large-scale permanent mural works such as 'Snowfall' in Madrid, 'Nocturne' in Porto and 'Urban Landscape V' in Arezzo.
In 2016, Sten Lex participated in the Bukruk Festival in Bankok by painting an abstract mural entitled "The Storm" and curated the "Stations of the Artist" project by creating the external façade of the Ostiense Station in Rome with the work "Urban Landscape V". The duo's work, entitled 'Accordion', dated August 2016, covers an area of 1,000 square metres in the city of Austin, Texas. At the end of 2016, the duo decided to leave for Sicily and produced works in several cities (Catania, Ragusa, Ca-strofilippo, Favara and Gibellina) for the Triscele project created together with Moneyless and Martina Merlini.
The Gibellina work is the most representative of the journey. The result of his experience of the territory and influenced by the great artists of the past who have left their mark on Gibellina (Burri, Accardi, Consa-gra), the work in Piazza Joseph Beuys acts as an entrance to Pietro Consagra's unfinished theatre and is inti-titled 'Confini' (Boundaries).
In 2017, the University of Monterrey, Mx, invited Sten Lex to be part of the public art project Di-stricto Tec and commissioned him to create the Luis Elizondo Auditorium. The work, Urban Landscape IX', created using the Stencil Poster technique, covers an area of 4000 square metres.
A group exhibition entitled 'Abstracta' curated by Raffaella Bozzini, Giancarlo Carpi and Giuseppe Stagnitta was held in 2018. The exhibition includes the major exponents of Italian abstractionism: from the forerunners to the most recent protagonists of urban art. In the same year, the municipality of Saint-Gervais, (Mont Blanc), invited them to create a work, 'Untitled' on the exterior wall of the garage entrance to the town.
In 2019, the duo took part in group exhibitions in Munich and Basel and inaugurated their solo exhibition entitled 'Confini' (Borders) at the Milan branch of the Wunderkammer gallery. The exhibition includes a series of black-and-white carto-graphies that refer to imaginary landscapes, between realism and abstraction, between reality and fantasy.
In May 2019, they participated in the Palma Festival in Caen and created the work entitled 'Screen', while in September, the municipality of Rennes hosted them for the Urban Art Biennial. In Ren-nes, they paint the wall adjacent to the Centre Culturel Colombier, naming the work 'Abstract Landsca-pe'.
In January 2020, the duo won the bid by the municipality of Bauladu (OR) for the redevelopment of the Emilio Lussu Municipal Bi-library and produced a new series of 'Tapestries' inspired by the tradition of weaving and interweaving typical of Sardinian carpets, and a map, inspired by imaginary maps, entitled 'Borders'.
In September 2020, Sten Lex inaugurated their first solo exhibition in a museum, entitled 'Rinascita' (Rebirth) at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Rome, also painting a series of works inside the cloister including 'Screen', 'Mare' (Sea) and 'Paesaggio Urbano' (Urban Landscape).
In Milan, Via Padova, they created two works on two façades inside the Mosso park, 'Paesaggio In-dustriale' and 'Screen'.
In 2021 they realise 'Screen V' on a façade at the entrance to Antrodoco.
In 2022 they will create 'Boundaries XVI' in the municipal square of Calcata and 'Industrial Landscape XVIII' on a newly built building in Salerno.
In 2023 they will exhibit new works from the 'Mirror' series at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Lucca.
At that time, in Italy, the stencil technique was little used in the street as an art form, which is why Sten Lex are considered to be among the main spreaders of Italian 'Stencil Graffiti'.
The duo is internationally known for having introduced the use of mezzotint in stencils since 2002. The graphic processing, which they call Hole School, consists of cutting out an image composed of dots or lines: a portrait thus appears realistic from afar, abstract from close up.
In an early period, their artistic research was inspired by both classical engravers, such as Dorè and Piranesi, and contemporary artists such as Warhol, who used silkscreen printing as the main medium in his la-vories. The subjects of their works are anonymous characters, photographed by themselves or rediscovered in old photographic archives, painted in black-and-white stencils and the result of research into occi-dental photographic portraits from the 1960s to the present day.
From 2006 to 2008, they organised, together with Lucamaleonte, three editions of International Poster Art, at-taping hundreds of posters from all over the world on the walls of Esc, an occupied atelier in Rome. In 2008, Banksy invited them to participate in the Cans Festival in London together with a group of artists specialised in 'Stencil Graffiti'.
Since 2010, Sten Lex have been making stencils cut out on paper and pasted on walls. After using both stencils and posters as media for years, the duo created a process they call Stencil Poster. The process consists of putting up a poster in the street, a poster made up of lines or dots; the po-ster is cut out by hand on the very wall to which it is applied; the paper stencil, once cut out, is painted black and finally destroyed to make room for the final work. The concept behind this process is that atmospheric agents, such as rain and wind, slowly destroy the matrix over time, revealing the final work as the matrix dissolves. The essential meaning of the "stencil", which is considered a technique for reproducing the same image several times, is thus taken to a paradox in that by destroying the matrix, which is also part of the work, its reproducibility is lost. In 2008 and 2010 they participated in the Nuart Festival together with other artists including Blek le Rat, Nick Walker, Dolk, D-Face, Chris Stain, Blu, Ericailcane, Vhils and Roa.
Since 2010 they have produced a series of portraits of anonymous people on building facades, such as in Sta-vanger, Køge, Baltimore, Atlanta, Poznan and Katowice.
In 2012 they realised an exterior façade inside the Macro Museum in Rome under the direction of Pietromarchi and in the same year they exhibited their work at the Danysz Gallery in Paris.
In 2013, they exhibited in a single show at the Danysz Gallery in Shanghai. Starting with the latter mo-stra, the duo began working on abstract forms, taking up both the technique and the structure composed of lines that had characterised most of their previous portraits. The first large-scale work in this abstract series was made on the Palazzo dell'Economia in Bari in 2013 for the Doppelgaen-ger gallery. Also in 2013, they participated in the Outdoor Festival in Rome with the work 'Industrial Landscape' and in the City Leaks festival in Cologne with another 'Industrial Landscape'.
In 2014, the Italian Cultural Institute called them to create a façade in Shanghai. The wall, titled 'Volcano', covers 8 floors and marks the beginning of a moving path for the duo. In 2014, they painted 'Arazzo' at the Foro Italico in Rome under the curatorship of Pietromarchi and Alicata.
The new abstract works are shown in group exhibitions in museums of contemporary art such as the Maco in Oaxaca, Mexico, the Caixa Cultural in São Paulo, Brazil, and the Cafa Museum in Beijing. In 2015, the duo inaugurated a single show at the Wunderkammern Gallery in Rome and one at the Celaya Bro-thers Gallery in Mexico City. In both exhibitions, in addition to abstract landscapes, paper 'Matrices' installed between two pieces of glass are exhibited for the first time. Some of the works on show in 2015 are reproduced on a large scale on walls in Rome, Stazione Ostiense - 'Urban Landscape VIII' - and Mexico City in the Roma district - 'Urban Landscape IV'. 2015 is also the year in which the duo is asked to create large-scale permanent mural works such as 'Snowfall' in Madrid, 'Nocturne' in Porto and 'Urban Landscape V' in Arezzo.
In 2016, Sten Lex participated in the Bukruk Festival in Bankok by painting an abstract mural entitled "The Storm" and curated the "Stations of the Artist" project by creating the external façade of the Ostiense Station in Rome with the work "Urban Landscape V". The duo's work, entitled 'Accordion', dated August 2016, covers an area of 1,000 square metres in the city of Austin, Texas. At the end of 2016, the duo decided to leave for Sicily and produced works in several cities (Catania, Ragusa, Ca-strofilippo, Favara and Gibellina) for the Triscele project created together with Moneyless and Martina Merlini.
The Gibellina work is the most representative of the journey. The result of his experience of the territory and influenced by the great artists of the past who have left their mark on Gibellina (Burri, Accardi, Consa-gra), the work in Piazza Joseph Beuys acts as an entrance to Pietro Consagra's unfinished theatre and is inti-titled 'Confini' (Boundaries).
In 2017, the University of Monterrey, Mx, invited Sten Lex to be part of the public art project Di-stricto Tec and commissioned him to create the Luis Elizondo Auditorium. The work, Urban Landscape IX', created using the Stencil Poster technique, covers an area of 4000 square metres.
A group exhibition entitled 'Abstracta' curated by Raffaella Bozzini, Giancarlo Carpi and Giuseppe Stagnitta was held in 2018. The exhibition includes the major exponents of Italian abstractionism: from the forerunners to the most recent protagonists of urban art. In the same year, the municipality of Saint-Gervais, (Mont Blanc), invited them to create a work, 'Untitled' on the exterior wall of the garage entrance to the town.
In 2019, the duo took part in group exhibitions in Munich and Basel and inaugurated their solo exhibition entitled 'Confini' (Borders) at the Milan branch of the Wunderkammer gallery. The exhibition includes a series of black-and-white carto-graphies that refer to imaginary landscapes, between realism and abstraction, between reality and fantasy.
In May 2019, they participated in the Palma Festival in Caen and created the work entitled 'Screen', while in September, the municipality of Rennes hosted them for the Urban Art Biennial. In Ren-nes, they paint the wall adjacent to the Centre Culturel Colombier, naming the work 'Abstract Landsca-pe'.
In January 2020, the duo won the bid by the municipality of Bauladu (OR) for the redevelopment of the Emilio Lussu Municipal Bi-library and produced a new series of 'Tapestries' inspired by the tradition of weaving and interweaving typical of Sardinian carpets, and a map, inspired by imaginary maps, entitled 'Borders'.
In September 2020, Sten Lex inaugurated their first solo exhibition in a museum, entitled 'Rinascita' (Rebirth) at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Rome, also painting a series of works inside the cloister including 'Screen', 'Mare' (Sea) and 'Paesaggio Urbano' (Urban Landscape).
In Milan, Via Padova, they created two works on two façades inside the Mosso park, 'Paesaggio In-dustriale' and 'Screen'.
In 2021 they realise 'Screen V' on a façade at the entrance to Antrodoco.
In 2022 they will create 'Boundaries XVI' in the municipal square of Calcata and 'Industrial Landscape XVIII' on a newly built building in Salerno.
In 2023 they will exhibit new works from the 'Mirror' series at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Lucca.