Santa Monica

If no Fay Joneses existed, galleries would have to invent them. There must be legions of collectors who want work that looks somewhat complex, is upbeat without being gauche and alludes to chic or mildly titillating activities.

Jones, who lives in Seattle, paints and collages scenes of foreign romantic intrigue on paper. The layering of paper, the superimposition of attractive curving shapes, the objects flying in midair and the fragmentation and repetition of forms give the work a contemporary feel without committing it to anything but looking pretty.

Stylized sailors in nifty white caps and flat blue uniforms, stylized women eternally ready for a date, stylized lily pads, stylized broken eggshells, stylized disembodied hands, stylized swans--thank goodness for all those Futurists and Surrealists who so bravely led the way. And should one be in search of instant global savoir-faire, look no further than the blocks of blue-papered Japanese comics cunningly pasted down here and there. Preciousness is all, and even the more expressive passages yield to its dubious charms. In “Light Wind Above Strong Current,” a gold-washed Japanese-style drawing of a flute-playing granddad riding a buffalo contrasts with a sex scene between a uniformed sailor and a woman. She evaporates above the knees; his arm pierces a red cloud. Somehow, despite the glint of real poetry here, the artist can’t stop waving effusively to her audience. (Shoshana Wayne Gallery, 1454 5th St., to Feb. 26.)