Eleni Pitari-Pangalou was born in Istanbul in 1905 into a wealthy family of the Greek diaspora. In the 1950s, while living in Greece, she married the academician, doctor, and professor George Pangalos. 

In 1926, she enrolled in the Athens School of Fine Arts, where she briefly worked at Nikolaos Lytras's side. In 1929, she was accepted into the class of Constantinos Parthenis. While a student at the Athens School of Fine Arts, she also attended painting classes at the studios of the Geralis Brothers and of Theofrastos Triantafyllidis, respectively.

From 1939 on she actively began to participate in group shows organised by various collectives and associations, including Eleftheroi Kallitechnes (Free Artists, 1939), Omas Ellinon Zografon Characton (The Greek Painters and Printmakers Group, 1939), Omas Zografoi kai Glyptai (The Painters and Sculptors Group, 1954), To Ergastiri (The Studio, 1965, 1969), as well as several editions of the Panhellenic Art Exhibition, then held at Zappeion (1939, 1952, 1957, 1960, 1963,1967, 1969, 1975).

In 1963, Pitari-Pangalou was among the artists who represented Greece in the 7th São Paulo Art Biennial and the 5th Alexandria Biennale for Mediterranean Countries. In 1950, she presented her first solo exhibition in Athens at Zachariou Gallery. Two more solo exhibitions were to follow, organised by Nees Morfes Gallery (1959, 1963), while she also showed work at Medusa Art Gallery in Rome (1963). In 1995, she peacefully passed away in her home in Athens. 

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