Ilya Lerner was born in Moscow, Russia in 1966. He emigrated in 1989 and currently lives in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. He holds Master of Fine Arts degree from The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Lerner's artwork has been subject of more than twenty solo shows, including a major retrospective at the Roberson Museum in Binghamton, New York in 2005, and has been featured in more than fifty group exhibitions. He won grants and awards from Vasari Classic Oil Paints, New York Foundation for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Art, Arts Council of Houston, Oil Painters of America and El Paso Museum of Art. Lerner was artist-in-residence at Fundacion Valparaiso, Mojacar, Spain, Mill Atelier Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Buffalo River National Park, Arkansas and fellow at the Vermont Studio Center. He taught at Holy Family University, Alvernia University, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Oregon State University, Lee College and Chautauqua Institution School of Art. Lerner's paintings are included in collections of the El Paso Museum of Art, Fundacion Valparaiso, National Park Service, President George W. Bush, South Side Bank and Morgan Stanley, among others.