Elena Borstein currently lives and works in New York City and the Adirondack Mountains. She was born in Hartford, Connecticut and received her B.S. Degree in Fine Arts from Skidmore College and her B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970. She is Professor Emerita of York College, CUNY. Borstein's work is included in many major collections including the Museum of Modern Art, NY; Hayden Museum, MIT, Cambridge, MA; Neuberger Museum, Purchase ,NY; Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY; Newark Museum, Newark, NJ; She is currently represented in New York City by the Andre Zarre Gallery and in upstate New York by the Atea Ring Gallery. Her work has been in many solo and group exhibitions both in this country and abroad including "American Realism" at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1985, the Bronx Museum in 1978, 1986, and 1993, "New Acquisitions" in the Everson Museum, The Herbert F. Johnson Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. Her work was part of a traveling exhibit organized by the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C. called "The Liberation - 14 American Artists" which traveled to 11 countries. She also exhibited at the McNay Art Institute in San Antonio, and won a Purchase Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1976. Throughout the 70's, 80's, and 90's Borstein traveled to Greece and other Mediterranean countries, where she was captivated by the light and simple geometry of the houses. In 1987 she traveled to Cuba and has returned many times since. For the last ten years Borstein has been living in the Adirondack Mountains, where sailing has brought about a new direction in her work. The simple elegance of the sails, the feeling of the wind, brilliant colors of the spinnaker and the subtle shades of tone and form created by light reflected from sky and water have all inspired her recent work. This work was recently shown at the Atea Ring Gallery in Westport, NY and will be seen in 2009 at the Courthouse Gallery in Lake George,NY.