Olena Kotlyar was born in Simferopol, Ukraine, in 1977. She studied at the Crimean State Art College named after Samokish (1994–1997) and later at the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Fine Arts (1999–2004).

Kotlyar is a master of monumental painting and an art historian. She lectured in art history at the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Fine Arts (2006–2009) and served as Associate Professor at Kharkiv State Pedagogical University (2009–2013). Since 2014, she has been Associate Professor at the Department of Decorative Arts of the Crimean Engineering and Pedagogical University.

Her works are held in the Crimean Ethnographic Museum.