Considered as pioneers in their use of the stencil in Italy, STEN LEX, age 30, started their career in their hometown of Rome in 2001, and rapidly acquired an international reputation. Their work consists of portraits of anonymous characters that they photograph as well as portraits from album covers from the ‘60s and ‘70s. Moving between op art and stencil work STEN LEX is based on a technical finesse and unprecedented accuracy in their remarkable art. Their technique, which they named "Hole School”, is a meticulous hand cut stencil process. They make a thin frame consisting of thousands of paper lines. From the contrast of the black and white lines, the portrait emerges. The visual illusion of the stencil is thus part of the work. The walls on which the stencils are pasted up and the eventual evolution of the paper are hence an equal part of the artwork.