Irina Karkabi is an Israeli Figurative Artist who was born 1960 into a family of physicists in the city of Kharkov 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, Irina Karkabi 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, Irina Karkabi founded her studio where she exclusively works in oil on canvas.

Irina Karkabi exhibits internationally, and focuses mainly on portraits, landscapes and figurative art. By age six, she began to study art seriously, which culminated in acceptance to the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg. The academy, which has nurtured the greatest classical painters of Russia from the mid-19th century, is considered the preeminent academy of arts in all of Russia. The Academy brought to Irina’s rich cultural background the finest classical education plus a demanding, rigorous mastery of skills. Her travels through Europe and the East eventually led to settling, with her husband, in the beautiful city of Haifa, overlooking the Mediterranean. There, she founded her studio at the crossroads of many cultures. Irina’s paintings explore the mysteries of love and feminine beauty. Drawing from the old masters of Greece and Egypt, and the elegance of the Art Nouveau style, she skillfully blends classical beauty with contemporary symbolism. Her timeless images reverberate with sensuality, as they explore the depths of the human psyche.