Sten & Lex, pioneers of Italian stencil graffiti, take their style to the next grade. Half pitch graphic cages disappear in favor of a more impulsive and liberating stroke that discloses itself in their present work. They deny to leave the street. On the opposing, with a new style that Sten & Lex seem is even more individual, these Roman street creative persons affirm their love affair with stencil art and walls en plein air. aperture School, the method they insert and evolve in 2002, is still at the heart of the process. What disappears however is the hyper-realistic effect of the rigid geometries we were accustomed to, motivated by the manic precision of customary engraving and the various classic publishing techniques, such as half pitch. Lines, points and pixels, one time arranged along grids in alignment to depict a number of anonymous faces, now disintegrate to then blow up in a web of chaotic and aggressive caresses resembling razor slashes. The geometry is as if viciously surprised by a convulsive present fueled by a desire for freedom, but furthermore annoyance towards a practice that is now advised too rigid from an expressive point of view.The photographic portrait continues the inspiration of quotation. Just like the process of conceiving stencil posters. What alterations is the graphic and expressive style of the stroke. The first work to be propagated from this new style is at the Spazio Metropolis, former Fiorucci manufacturer (in Rome), and was conceived in 2 weeks in October 2011. Then it was the turn of Volturno movies next to Termini train station, the previous Palazzo cinema and a dozen of parts of smaller dimensions disperse throughout the Italian capital.

(more…)