An exhibition of paintings by Edwin M.E. Smith -- September 18 to 29 -- Bermuda Society of Arts, Edinburgh Gallery at City Hall.

From his painting of City Hall for the Corporation of Hamilton to his large reproduction of a merchandise-filled department store window, Edwin M.E.

Smith, whose first solo exhibition wraps up at the Bermuda Society of Arts' Edinburgh Gallery tomorrow, can very well be described as a commercial artist in the literal sense.

A graphic designer by trade, Mr. Smith has chosen, to a large degree, to adopt the corporate iconology of Bermuda, the long-defining mercantilism of the Island, as his particular subject matter -- a worthy and complex target area indeed, but one that can also be filled with irony and humour and ceaseless opportunities for social and political commentary.

For the most part, though, the artist in this case has taken, sadly, a more straightforward approach to his material, letting his iconic images -- Front Street, Queen Street, a window at Davison's in Paget -- stand on their own supposed merits, free of any nudge or wink or commentary, mute testaments to their own inflated glories. To be sure, there is an element of technical beauty, a Hopperesque clarity, to such paintings as "Airport Reflection'' or "Davison's Paget,'' but the viewer can't also help but thinking, in their cool but static appearance and their flatness of tone and feeling, that a major opportunity has been lost somewhere, that Mr. Smith has contented himself, simply, with his stated aim of rendering his subjects "almost photographically''.

Unlike, for example, the American Edward Hopper (with whom Mr. Smith shares a number of artistic likenesses), there is no thematic or emotional depth in the latter's so-called corporate works to offset the appealing but almost cartoonish style of both, nor is there, on the other side of the coin, any sense of the social or political urgency in Mr. Smith's otherwise fine paintings that had made the industrial art of Italy and Russia in the early part of this century as relevant and important as it was beautiful.

In fact -- and despite the US-schooled Mr. Smith's long-running commitment to the subject -- the artist is much more successful when he moves away from the "commercial'' and dwells (quite beautifully and subtly in some cases) on the details of Bermuda, still lifes and "secret places'' that say much more about the Island and Mr. Smith's abilities than any of his Hamilton vistas do.

Intellectually and technically, for example, the artist is far more effective when he explores and shines his spotlight on such themes as texture and space, which he does convincingly in paintings like "Baygrape,'' "On the Shelf'', "Green Shutter.'' In these works, an affecting abstract depth is lent to his otherwise pedestrian choices of subject -- "Baygrape,'' for instance, working as a particularly successful contrast between foliage and corrosion, with the colours (silvery white, pea green, fiery splashes of red) that dance to the left and right of the "Green Shutter'' lending a passionate wistfulness to that work.

Interestingly enough, these rather impressionistic paintings are the most recent in the career of the first-time solo exhibitor, who admitted in a recent newspaper interview that he had hit "a brick wall'' with his representational works.

As paintings like "Baygrape'' and "Green Shutter'' would suggest, moreover, perhaps Mr. Smith is now ready to surmount that wall.

Danny Sinopoli