THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, JULY 26, 1996

Art in Review

Roy Fowler 'Paintings Project II' 155 Mercer Street, SoHo through Aug. 31.

A surfer's joy, this highly appropriate summer show consists entirely of wave paintings: big, macho breakers and combers that rise up in menacing cliffs and scary crescendos, or, having peaked, come thundering down to crash and boil on the water's surface. But Roy Fowler has a light, elegant touch with his waves; though turbulent, they are not the stormy monsters of 19th-century shipwreck sagas. The atmosphere in his work is bright and sunny; his slightly stylized approach is more in keeping with Japanese painting, and his colors, light, sometimes bright shades of blue and aqua with white for spume and reflections of sunlight, are hardly oceanic. His waves are travel-poster waves, but like travel posters, they are pleasing to contemplate. GRACE GLUECK