Khadeir Al Shakarji was born in 1937 in Baqouba, a city to the northeast of the capital Baghdad and belonged to the 1960s generation of Iraqi artists. Al Shakarji studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad, where he subsequently taught for many years. After graduating, he joined the Baghdad Modern Art Group, where he was greatly influenced by prominent members of the group including Jewad Selim, Shakir Hassan Al Said and Jabra Ibrahim Jabra.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Al Shakarji continued to paint and exhibit his work across the region, winning prizes in both Qatar and Kuwait in the early 1980s, all whilst teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad. Al Shakarji was painting the world around him. Like his contemporaries, the artist's work can be characterised by his academic understanding of art as a foundation, fused delicately with aspects of his Iraqi heritage.