Provenance: Galerie Leger, Malmö, Sweden.

Beauty and decay are closely related in Allan Otte’s work. Burnt out tractors, crashed cars and overturned trucks appear in deserted landscapes, where the sky is vast, the view expansive and the setting sun paints the horizon in a golden hue. The result is often both fatal and disturbing. With rock-solid and elegant mastery of a broad technical palette Otte creates his seemingly razor sharp, hyper-realistic compositions – but only at first glance. When looking and considering Otte’s work more closely they become less easy to define. They remain as flickering afterthoughts, difficult to shake entirely.

The work “Stuck in the middle” depicts a typical Danish autumn scene; the trees are bare, the sky is bright and grey, while a blue tractor in the foreground is thoroughly stuck in the mud. While the painting's background shimmers delicately and diffusely, the ploughed furrows of the field stick out in thick layers of paint with clear traces of the painter’s brush. The tractor is constructed of both horizontal, vertical and concentric strokes, which enhance the feeling of seeing the machine sinking ever deeper into the mud. As a painter Allan Otte is a rare virtuoso and uses his medium's various instruments with continuing curiosity. The impression that remains is sober, honest and vulnerable – ever-changing and certainly never boring.