LONDON, ENGLAND.- Paradise Row presents 'Paved with Good Intentions', the first major London solo exhibition by French artist Guillaume Paris. On show will be key pieces from Paris' oeuvre along with a number of new works that, together, span the categories of sculpture, video, painting and computer-generated art.

Over the last fifteen years Guillaume Paris has evolved a diverse practice that focuses, from an anthropological standpoint, on the use and abuse of meaning and identity in contemporary culture. The work examines the powerful ideological forces that shape modern society, especially their more curious elements - such as the persistence of quasi magical forms of thinking in the discourse of both consumer fetishism and Western politics that combine to form our 'new world order'.

At their core, these interests lead Paris to explore notions of the ideal and the rhetoric of purity that underlie all these discourses: from politics to religion, via advertising and marketing. As part of that critique of purity Paris positively engages with ideas of change and adaptability, in conceptions of heterogeneity, transience and tolerance.

In keeping with these concerns Paris produces exhibitions that define a very particular kind of space. Structurally diverse, often they combine works executed in different media that apparently address different subjects. Paris creates spaces that are opposed to any form of essentialism, tolerate antagonism and do not lend themselves to any form of closure. Instead they provoke critical engagement and, at times, a more emotional response to the vast flow of artefacts and ideas that structure and mediate the world we inhabit.