Natela Iankoshvili studied from 1937 until 1943 at the Tbilisi State Academy of Art. She later became a member of the Union of Artists. Her teachers were Lado Gudiashvili, Davit Kakabadze, and Sergo Kolubadze. She mainly worked in painting and also she was a graphic artist and illustrator as well; her illustrations were used for a Japanese edition of The Knight in the Panther’s Skin published in 1966. Iankoshvili refused to conform to social realist style of the Soviets, favoring instead a neo-expressionist manner of painting which was to become her hallmark. Even so, she was able to travel, visiting Cuba and Mexico during the course of her career. The works created during these journeys were later displayed in Tbilisi. In 2000 a museum dedicated to her work, containing over one thousand pieces, was opened in Tbilisi, formerly operated by the government, nowadays it is a private museum. Her work may be found in the collection of the Georgian Museum of Fine Arts.