IN MY WAY(S)

And AWAY – Early Works

J. O. Mallander, 2–30 October 2026

My debut as an artist took place in 1968 with the poetry collection OUT, the EP record Extended Play, and a series of poetry posters. For nearly 60 years, I have been building a life in art: as an artist, critic, gallerist, collector, and so on. My artistic journey has now become the subject of academic research: in 2024, Diane Kaur Mitchell’s doctoral dissertation (Uppsala University) was published, followed now by Marko Home’s study (Parvs), due to be published on 15 October.

“Artist” – it’s a relative term. For a long time, I was uncertain, full of contradictions, critical of egos, and generally hesitant to make any claims. I searched for my way intuitively, experimenting with different forms of expression.

In this context, Paja Gallery presents a selection of early works, along with various forms of expression and actions that reveal what was going through my mind as the works came into being – but also before that, before the work even existed. Such works existed purely as ideas, concepts, images in the mind. I found them deeply fascinating.

I did not even claim to be an artist, but I had great and inspiring role models (Klein, Reinhardt, Cage, Beuys, Paik, Warhol, Newman), as well as a clear need to dramatise the insights I encountered along the way towards them. I remained, as it were, at the starting line while others trained to become professionals and built their careers. But I also understood that, as a non-artist, I could perhaps get more out of ideas. This led to a period of intense experimentation, branching out in different directions. These explorations were hardly understood. There were few people in the audience, and they were not particularly interested. They surely had other things on their minds. I understand them now – and why things turned out as they did.

But I had to find my own way, discover my authentic voice, and develop some kind of formula for a meaningful life in art. I wanted to live as simply as possible, in close connection with the ground of being. I was critical of many aspects of the system, above all its ideological constructs. Inner contradictions and conflicting emotions proved harder to overcome. I wanted to find a personal equation that would allow me to move forward within the field of tension between Reality – Selfhood – Creativity.

For me, progress was slow, thankless, and arduous. Yet it eventually led to a clarified vision with three main strands: Wang and its variations; the brick installations Towards a Pure Land; and the poetry series Ode. It was important to develop, through my own practice, at least some kind of narrative and a certain sense of style. The equation I found carried me a long way. I am still on that path.

That which is Essential lies beyond – Nirvana We are not there yet; Art exists for the sake of change

For the first time, Paja Gallery presents a work of particular importance to me: a charcoal drawing from the transitional period of the late 1990s, which I rediscovered this year.

Encountering it again moved me deeply: “How on earth was I able to make something like this?” The work In My Way(s) revealed, with all the clarity one could wish for, where and how my creative consciousness was moving at the time – and it continues to move me today.

24 September 2026 jom

Paja Galleria is an exhibition space established in 2020 in Kalasatama's Seripaja. The gallery hosts monthly changing exhibitions. The space is free of charge for the artist holding the exhibition.

Paja galleria
 Kalasataman seripaja, Vanha talvitie 9, Helsinki


Open Mon–Fri 10–17