Tankpetrol is a Polish street artist living in Manchester. His main medium is stencils, which he combines with carefully placed background details to create clean, well-executed artworks.
Born Irek Jasutowicz in Poland in 1982, the artist spent his teenage years using graffiti tags. These found themselves all over the city. His obsession with detail, which can be seen in his artwork nowadays, was already evident in his childhood. Back then, he spent hours building plastic models of planes and boats. Later he joined the army, where he was a tank commander and tank gunner. This is where his name comes from.
After leaving his job in the army, he moved to Manchester in 2006, looking for a well-paid job, as he couldn’t find one in Poland. It was in Manchester that Tankpetrol first came into contact with stencil art. He was inspired and influenced by anonymous street artists.
His search for a personal style and its development resulted in a complex visual aesthetic. He tries to blur stencils and spray them with other techniques such as acrylic paint and various mixed media. Tank’s works are very detailed and full of background elements. Inverted triangles, geometric shapes, homemade fonts and logos imbue his work with a distinct stencil art look.
He employs painting and personalisation, but also creates large-scale murals, as well as interior design and carpentry.
He has done live art for many UK and international festivals and events, such as Sketchcity. Tank has also exhibited internationally, starting at Upper Space Gallery – the UK’s first street art gallery in the North West. He has also had numerous exhibitions in Halifax and Poland as well as group shows at The Place amongst others.
