"2031" Estonian Painters` Association exhibition. Tartu Art House. 18.08.- 11.09.
Personal exhibition Truth is elastic. Gallery Fuajee- Loomemajanduskeskus, Tartu 14.02.- 28.03.2011
Paides avati Pärdile pühendatud näitus
20.august 2010 Paide Kultuurikeskuses näituse KINGITUS PÄRDILE avamine
Arvo Pärdi heliloomingust inspireeritud maalid, graafika ja joonistused.
Paidest pärit maailmakuulsa helilooja Arvo Pärdi 75. juubelile pühendatud Pärdi pidunädalate raames näitus „Kingitus Pärdile, väljas on teoseid 30 kunstnikult ja ka Järvamaa noorte maale.
(curator Enn Põldroos) Tallinn Art Hall 19. June - 25. July 2010
Modern Art Museum in Pärnu
18 May 2010
Viktor Kaarneem, art friend
The Museum of New Art in Pärnu hosts the Estonian Painters Association annual exhibition “Blue”, displaying the works of over 40 artists.
As the volume of the exhibition prevents detailed discussion of every piece, I shall start with my favourites. Entering the exhibition halls of the Museum of New Art, it is impossible to ignore the paintings by the artist couple Sirje Protsin-Petersen and Per William Petersen, displayed in the first hall.
Both are familiar to the local art audience due to their performance in the Pärnu City Gallery at the end of last year. In their works, both fondly use the colour blue, its hues and halftones, also collating these to the contrasting colours. Playing with blue is especially dear to Per Petersen.
The self-portrait “Today Will Be a Good Day” (oil 2010) is predominantly in cold blues. The painting radiates a crisp coolness with only the red tie on the man carrying the undertone of the caption: the protagonist beams positivity and freedom. It is an immense pity that I haven’t had the chance to visit the Narva Museum Art Gallery, which displays the personal exhibition of Mr Petersen until 31 May.
Narva Museum Art Gallery
02.12. 2009 - 03.01. 2010
Participation with 4 paintings in juried exhibition:
The II international Festival of Independent Art "Sea level", dedicated to the 20 anniversary of art-center "Pushkinskaya-10" ,which will take place from the 24th of October to the 8th of November, 2009 in the Central Exhibition Hall «Manezh» of St.-Petersburg, Russia.
2009 Estonian Painter`s Association exhibition "Vaba Kava"
Voru Linnagalerii, Estonia
Personal Exhibition in Kuressaare Rae Gallery- Estonia
03.04.- 30.04.2009
IRONY OF THE CROWN
Kuressaare Raegalerii hosted a painting exhibition called Uncovered by Danish painter Per William Petersen.
3 April - 30 April 2009
The most important part of Petersen's exhibition can be characterised by the keyword 'crown'. This primarily comprises a large (81x63 cm) wood and metal crown, which the artist himself calls a sculpture. Despite good designer work, it does not symbolise a jewel. The artist has said that according to his observations, many common people are left without worthy recognition in their lives. Cultivation of the crown theme constitutes an homage to all such Estonian people.
In the context of our cultural history, the crown-king-queen paradigm can also be approached with irony. Petersen's neorealist paintings commonly entitled "Yet uncrowned" (a series of oil paintings, 2008) stand firm to support that approach.
"Flying Away" and "Service" (oil on canvas, 2008) - the first one featuring a female nude against the background of a ship like a wounded seal on the beach sand, the second featuring a young woman offering her breasts on a metal tray. The sincerity and naïveté of the approach render the depicted figures helpless. Despite great technical differences, associations may be drawn with Piter Bruegel senior (first and foremost), starting from his cruel carnival fantasies of the jester king theme and ending with peasant pictures featuring conflicts that might occasionally be difficult to understand. Despite the later influence of Italian and French art, the Bruegel artist family was definitely not captivated by classic beauty.
Neo-realism is painting after painting - after abandoning the pictorial image of conceptualists. The subject matter was reinterpreted, and the recreation of painting ideas began with other means. Back to earthly ground! This was started already in the 1960s, among else introducing low-prestige materials and banal motifs, and employing pop art techniques like photorealist portraits, etc.
Next to the neo-expressionist brutality, irony and grotesque stand as possible forms of interpreting neo-realism. If to consider the Italian and German versions of neo-pictorialism, Petersen might be closer to the latter.
Leili Parhomenko
Art critic
Narva Museum
SUHTED
Together with Sirje Protsin
February 2008
Rotermann’s Salt Storage - Arts Centre, Tallinn
New York
Febuary 2005
Art-journalist Danica Novgorodoff, New York: 
Wickedly humorous and absolutely original, Per William Petersen's waggish portraits depict buxom damsels and plump-featured fellows whose physiques and faces seem to be composed of sleek synthetics or bright inflatables.
With a sculptural sensibility and a distinctive Pop Art sheen, Petersens' characters are both delightful and obtuse, doing what they do with a blithe unconcern for who may be watching or how they may appear. Impish and colorful, Petersen's works are lighthearted narratives and unexpected portraits that reveal his interest in the strangeness of everyday life as shaped by interconnected coincidences.
"To paint is to tell stories," he says. "I paint because I am curious to see all those stories that are hidden behind the surface. I am removing the surface, turning the stone." Born in Denmark, Petersen worked as a silversmith, and later as a graphic designer, before turning his artistic attentions more fully to painting and design.