She graduated from a secondary school of fine arts and the State Higher School of Fine Arts (now the University of Arts) in Poznań. She received her diploma with honours from Professor Waldemar Świeży. In 1980, her diploma work took part in an exhibition of the best diplomas of art schools at the Zachęta Art Gallery. In her third year at university, she began working with theatres and opera. She created more than fourteen costume designs, among others for the opera "King Roger" at the St. Moniuszko Grand Theatre in Poznań, for the New Theatre in Warsaw, the Aleksander Węgierko Drama Theatre in Białystok.

In 1982, she moved to Hamburg, where she and her husband, set designer Sławomir Dębosz, ran the advertising and multimedia agency "Debosz&Debosz Creative Team". For more than twenty years, the company carried out advertising projects for large companies and concerns. In 2002, the artist moved to New York. She opened her own atelier and had a solo exhibition at the East Village Gallery in the same year. In early 2004, she moved to Montreal. Here she ran an open-studio and had two solo exhibitions at Atelier Oasis, in 2004 and 2005.

In 2005, she moved to Italy and settled in Lucca, Tuscany. She has collaborated with Italian galleries, including the art gallery in San Gimignano. She has repeatedly presented her works in exhibitions including: Atelier- Gallery Lucca, 2008; Capella delle Zitelie Borgo a Mozzano, Lucca, 2008; Palazzo Michiel del Brusa, Venice, 2009; Accademia di Montegral, Lucca, 2009; Chiesa di Santa Gulia, Lucca, 2009; Villa Bottini- X7 Arte, Lucca, 2010; Palazzo Marin, Venice, 2011; ADACH, Abu Dhabi, 2011. In Abu Dhabi, the artist showed a series of more than a dozen paintings called 'Ospiti', a story about the different phases of a woman's life, where a figure like a phantom, only suggested by dresses and body parts, sits on a stylish armchair.

In 2013, the artist returned to Montreal, where she runs the Open-Studio Portfolio, where she paints, gives painting and drawing lessons, and organises openings of her work. In 2014, she had a solo exhibition, Souvenirs pour Demain, at the Chapelle Historique du Bon Pasteur. In December 2019, the artist organised an exhibition of her latest works 'Empreintes Figees'.

A master of figurative painting, the artist often refers to portraiture, operates with symbols from the history of European culture, and constructs and deconstructs imaginary worlds. The women in Irena Chrul's portraits emerge from a world of dreams, dreams, theatre. Transparent scarves, flowing veils, unfurling bandages and piled-up fabrics give movement to the images and create drama to the stories the painter depicts. Using the staffage of cultural heritage, the artist is sensitive to the present day, to the world around us and its problems, to female beauty and the emotions associated with it.

The series of works 'Les Roses sont Rouge' was dedicated to female artists who committed suicide: Sarah Kane, Sylvie Plath, Kaye Sage, Francesca Woodman. "The portraits are persons and at the same time symbols of emotions: desire, nostalgia, shame, fear" is how the artist understands her works. Irena Chrul's works can be found in collections: Fine Arts Museum - San Francisco, Abu Dhabi government collection, Allianz Poland, Museum Angewandte Kunst - Munich and in private collections in: Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the Arab Emirates, the United States, Canada and Poland.

Work in catalogue
Irena Chrul, 'Venus', 2015, oil on canvas, 120 x 140 cm. From the indefinite forms of piled up fabrics, foam, the hull of a fish body, a being of some kind takes shape. The tulle ripples, an unknown force tears the body of the fish to shreds. Monochrome composed of shades of grey builds the mood of this painting. The sign alluding to the title is the outline of the hand of the titular Venus emerging from the abysses of the sea, which explains the dynamics and drama in the painting.