Gallery -- June 24 to September 15 Who says Bermuda isn't -- or wasn't -- on the cutting edge of art? As the current exhibition on the upper mezzanine level of the National Gallery makes clear, Bermudians have been revelling in (or at least collecting) that most difficult and much-maligned of art forms -- the abstract -- since at least the 1950s.

"Abstraction,'' as the exhibition has been titled, constitutes an assemblage of a dozen or so examples of that revelry -- abstract paintings and sculptures (some quite famous) from the homes and offices of local individuals and businesses. Overall, the show, which has been put together by senior Gallery curator Ms Marlee Robinson, produces mixed results, with some works being stronger than others and only a tentative sense of cohesion to hold it all together.

Looked at from another angle, however, the show can be regarded as wonderfully eclectic, and a good introduction to a difficult genre of art -- a primary objective of senior Gallery staffers, who wrote: "All art is abstract to some extent. In this exhibition we have selected from local private and corporate collections a small range of different approaches to abstraction. We trust visitors will find the work challenging and informative.'' If, however, the work itself doesn't prove to be immediately informative, the Gallery has considerately installed some accompanying "explanatory panels to give visitors some direction in beginning to appreciate each artwork''.

The panels, which offer a brief biography of the artist and a very general guide on what to "look'' for in the works, are indeed of help to the viewer, and generally well-written.

In the note on Fritz Glarner's delightful "Relational Painting -- Tondo No.

54,'' for example, the viewer is directed toward the "state of equilibrium between feeling and intellect'', while with Sean Scully's "Wall,'' a 1988 example of geometric abstraction, visitors are alerted to "a rural reminder in an urban setting'' and therefore a possible metaphor for entrapment in the city.

In some instances, of course, the panels can be quite unnecessary, as in the case of Lui Shou-kwan's "Landscape'', a work from 1970 that combines full written words with Chinese characters and is quite accessible thematically.

Even those works, however, that do prove to be difficult -- works like Joan Miro's stunning 1950 lithograph, which invites onlookers to "complete the picture'' themselves -- should not intimidate the viewer, who, to paraphrase FDR, has nothing to fear but fear itself (or, in this particular instance, his or her imagination). Viewers of "Abstraction'' would, in fact, do well in the case of this exhibition to follow the words of Italo Calvino, who is quoted in the note on Blake Lannon's "Between Sight and Sound'' (1991) as saying: "Be light like a bird, not like a feather.'' In other words, go to "Abstraction'' with an open and inquiring mind, and don't be afraid of sinking.

Danny Sinopoli "HIP HIP HOORAY'' -- By Charles M. Daugherty (1978). A wonderfully eclectic show that serves as a good introduction to a difficult genre of art.

ART REVIEW