Iya Feshina was born in 1914 in Kazan to the artist Nikolai Ivanovich Feshin, who was already known in both Russia and Europe. In 1923, when Iya was 9 years old, she emigrated to the USA with her parents. Before leaving the USSR, Feshin created many sketches depicting his daughter. The family first settled in New York and then moved to Los Angeles. Among his works, portraits of his wife and daughter hold a special place. In the painting "Mother and Daughter," the artist's wife and Iya are depicted reading a book. Iya was also captured in the painting "Summer," which received a Grand Silver Medal at the International Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1926.

The house in Taos was registered in the name of the artist's wife and remained with her. It turned out that Nikolai Feshin and his daughter were not ready for independent life, as the household was managed by Alexandra Feshina. They did not know how to write checks, book hotel rooms, or cook (the only dish Iya could prepare was buckwheat porridge). In 1945, Iya got married and left California, leaving her father behind.

Iya Feshina studied modern dance and became a professional ballerina. In the 1930s, she performed at the Hollywood Bowl in Igor Stravinsky's ballet "The Rite of Spring." In 1936, she worked with a troupe under choreographer Lester Horton. After ending her dance career, Feshina focused on combining dance with psychiatry and became one of the pioneers of art therapy.

After her mother's death in 1983, the Feshin house in Taos was inherited by Iya Nikolaevna. She restored it and recreated the interiors to look as they did during her father's lifetime. The house became a private museum, and Iya Nikolaevna registered the Feshin Institute, a non-profit organization to support it.

With Iya Feshina's help, an exhibition of the artist's paintings took place in 1976 in Kazan, Leningrad, Santa Fe, and New York. Iya succeeded in including Nikolai Feshin's house in Taos in the National Register of Historic Places in the USA. It now belongs to the private Taos Art Museum at the Feshin House, where works by Nikolai Feshin and artists of the Taos Society of Artists from the 1910s to 1930s are exhibited. In 2002, Iya Feshina was buried next to her father.