Irina Karkabi was born into a family of scientists in the Ukraine, but her artistic talent was nourished from an early age. She attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg-Russia, where after graduating in 1982, she moved to the bay city of Haifa in the north of Israel with her husband and newborn son.

There, at the Mediterranean crossroads of cultural ideas and influences, Karkabi founded her studio where she exclusively works in oil on canvas. She exhibits internationally, and focuses mainly on portraits, landscapes and figurative art.