Born in the city of Trapani in Sicily,[1] Carla Accardi studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Palermo and Florence prior to moving to Rome in 1946.

She founded the art group Forma in 1947 with fellow artists Pietro Consagra (1920-2005), Ugo Attardi (1923-2006), Antonio Sanfilippo (1923-1980), Giulio Turcato (1912-1995), Piero Dorazio (1927-2005), Achille Perilli, and Mino Guerrini, an Italian screenwriter, director, actor and painter.

There the contrasting static and energetic work of Alberto Magnelli and Hans Hartung inspired her to begin painting in black and white.

[7] She also began using a clear plastic material called Sicofoil, which she describes as "like something luminous, a mixing and a fluidity with the surrounding environment: perhaps in order to take away the totemic value of the painting.

[8] Accardi is considered a key member of the Italian avant-garde and her artwork influenced the Arte Povera movement in the late 1960s.