Tankey is well recognized for his dynamic sense of hyper realism. Tankey is a Melbourne based artist whose work attempts to discuss the ever narrowing gap between high and low culture and art. His works are expertly painted and jump off the canvas to the point where the viewer is mesmerized fighting the urge to reach out and grab the items of refuse, or touch the people depicted. Tankey’s still life compositions are a reflection of today’s society. They directly comment on the parameters of the society we live in and the consumerism that informs our life.

"Conceptually, my inspiration draws itself from the 17th century Dutch still life painters who concerned themselves with the perceived moral decay of society. An example is the painting “The World Upside Down” by Jan Steen (1663). This concept of moral art is exemplified by the genre of still life painting, vanitas. The vanitas is a type of symbolic work of art especially associated with Northern European still life painting in Flanders and the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries. This type of symbolic work of art derives from the Latin word, meaning "emptiness" and loosely translated corresponds to the meaninglessness of earthly life and the transient nature of vanity.

Over the past few years, the focus of my work has shifted away from streetscapes and moved towards the still life genre. The theme of urban decay continues to resonate in the current work in which spent objects act as signifiers of consumerist excess. The new work has presented new challenges of not only convincing representation, but of also imbuing a personal narrative within each composition. The narrative is not always linear or clearly defined. This way I hope the work ceases to be simply a dialogue, but rather a conversation with the viewer.”

Peter Tankey 2011