New Home for Shelter Island Gallery

The Fredric Bernstein Design Gallery on Shelter Island has moved to a new location and, as of June 1, is housed at 71 Menantic Road, Shelter Island. The new space was built as a photography studio with lots of natural light and is ideal for exhibiting art and collections.

To inaugurate the new space David Rankin, a Shelter Island-based painter and internationally known Australian artist, will present a solo show of his work called “Dualities.” The show opens Saturday, June 24, with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. and will run through July.

As a landscape painter, Rankin has devoted his life to finding meaning and beauty in images of place. Partly it is a question of what inspires him and partly a product of his experience — emigrating to Australia from England in 1948 he entered a remote, provincial art scene in which depictions of landscape dovetailed with narratives of emerging national identity and therefore greatly influenced the artist’s consciousness. The creative struggle between figuration and abstraction that dominated much of the art world through the mid decades of the 20th century also plays out in his work, which might properly be described as a kind of gestural color field crossed with Abstract Expressionism, both of which have strong roots in the New York art scene. It was no accident that Rankin moved to New York City from Australia.

Rankin has held numerous exhibitions all over the world and his paintings belong in important private collections and museums. “Dualities” intends to celebrate the great diversity of his talent, showcasing the contrast, fluidity, tension and duality in his work.

“If there is one ongoing theme I’ve worked with over the past 25 years, it’s one of mortality and regeneration,” said Rankin.

Fredric Bernstein Design Gallery is at 71 Menantic Road, Shelter Island. For more information, visit fredricbernstein.com.