The paintings of Mikkel Holm Petersen represent an enigma as well as a confirmation.

Some of the pictures look non-figurative, in others one finds traces of sentences, mysterious symbols, strange drawings in the mode of Leonardo da Vinci’s wonderful machines, and occasionally, the blurred images of human beings. It is impossible to say to what age these signs belong. Some look definitely ancient, others are undoubtedly modern showing objects and inventions from the 20th and 21st century.

What are we to make of all these images? Well, one association could be archaeological. The paintings of Mikkel Holm Petersen look like strata in an archaeological excavation. The reminds of an ancient civilisation dug up by future archaeologists at a site of a large buried metropolis, the symbols of the objects spanning a millennium of human activity. The precise meaning of the symbols would be unknown to the scientists, but they should at least be able to see them as representing the dreams, aspirations, and ambitions of all these civilisations from the past.

Besides this fascination with riddles and mysterious symbols, the pictures of Mikkel Holm Petersen are very much self-explanatory. The paint, often applied with an ancient looking ochre ground, is tactile, sensual, and smooth as velvet. They emanate an almost magical presence linking them to jewellery or sacred, religious objects. They radiate with a glow, which needs no references to the outside world. They are what they are.

In other words, what Mikkel Holm Petersen is doing is combining several elements, which are normally separated. In his paintings mysterious symbols exist side by side with secular messages, everyday objects blend with relics, and highly refined artistic and enginerical inventions mix up with mere personal, spontaneous scribbles.

What is important to understand is that there is no correct interpretation of these paintings. You see what you see, and all you have to do is use your imagination. You may investigate the precise meaning of the sentences, or you may simply enjoy the tactility and rich variation of the colours. In the end you will discover that you can extract no bulletproof meaning from the paintings. They simply refuse to be categorized. Instead, they offer the wonderful experience of giving you visual as well as mental excitation.

As an artist, then, Mikkel Holm Petersen is working in a way, which draws parallels to such different art historical movements as tachism, pop-art, conceptual art and lyrical abstraction. But of greater importance is, that he uses these as a tool to express himself in a very personal way.

Tom Jørgensen, Bachelor in Art History