“What makes these paintings so interesting is their concern with the esthetics of Greek structures. More than architectural celebrations as such, these buildings are artistic investigations of light and form and the animated interaction of the two... Borstein turns them(the paintings) into a personal format with her own rigorous compositions that are built with as much authority as the houses themselves... there is a dreamy mood about the paintings. They look removed in certain ways from everyday experience--something fantastical in the artist’s mind...they are not houses we would want to live in but we welcome them to live in us.”
David Shirey, The New York Times

“Like a guardian angel, Borstein hovers from house to house and her passage confers a benediction. In her ultimate choice is implied some form of blessing and some magic is evoked by the murmuring over and over of the names Mykonos, Siphnos, Hydra..like a chant, an incantation. The dream feeling is increased by the absence of texture and the immaculate flatness of her surfaces and is reinforced by the intensity of her metaphysical whites, the passion of her delphinium and pthalo blues, turquoise and violet, which make her luminous houses shimmer and glow as if they were hewn from marble or poured in porcelain...Borstein’s space is empty and serene, filled only with radiant light and the absence of sound. The paintings are so still one wishes like Alice to be able to step through the mirror into them and inhabit her world.”
Nina Ffrench-Frazier, Art International

“When Elena Borstein was an undergraduate studying art, she used to sneak into abandoned
buildings around town, the ones she loved architecturally, to capture in photographs the light in the interior, the way it translated through the windows into the room...That was a far cry from the exquisite paintings recently shown at the Ande Zarre Gallery, exteriors, white facades in sunlight, whole buildings receding from the viewer below cloudless skies in Greece.”
Barbara Flug-Colon, Arts Magazine

“Elena Borstein’s paintings are sparkling examples of painting that is not only visually rich, but metaphorical, evocative, and sensuous as well. It brings one back to what an all-encompassing experience art can be ...In Borstein’s work we know these scenes are transformations not only of the seen but of the felt ...The light is as evocative as the architecture, indeed seems to be responsible for the architecture, and is charged with the warmth of the sun ...The artist shares with us the experiential (rather than the factual) sum of her travels ...The spiritual fullness of her explorations is brilliantly evoked in the viewer who is left to fill in the details, feel the air and sun, smell the sea.”
Ellen Lubell, Arts Magazines

“...These scenes evoke memories unhampered by human associations. But the memories do not just recall a remote geography and touristic experiences. Rather Borstein’s modernism directs us to the intrinsic qualities of the pastels and stirs our aesthetic responses to recollections of timeless constructions of shapes,colors, and spaces.”
Patricia Hills, catalogue

“Elena Borstein paints and draws the quintessential architecture of places she visits. It was Greece in the earlier series and Cuba in the acrylics and pastels of this recent show. While those locales share balmy climates and light amplified by seas, the essence of Cuba in her telling is soft color and decay...Ultimately the strongest aspect of Borstein’s work is the gorgeous pastel colors infused with darker or light tones. Whether those latter variations are in fact blooms of mildew or patches of scaling plaster doesn’t diminish their beauty.”
Janet Koplos, Art in America

“Exploring the everyday architecture Borstien takes us on an engrossing stroll through the back streets of today's Cuba. Intrigued as well as concerned by the decaying beauty of its architectural fabric, she found herself drawn to these seemingly inconspicuous houses with their original bright colors fading and crumbling. The facades of Borsteins Cuban buildings may be crumbling but their foundations still endure as a powerful testimony to human perseverance and resiliency.”
Astrid Ihle, Berlin