Mary Regensburg Feist first exhibited in the 1930s in New York City and Santa Fe, New Mexico, and she continued painting until she was in her late 90s.
Ms. Regensburg Feist was born and raised in New York City. As a young child, she showed both ability and a keen interest in art, and her parents, Melville and Sophy Regensburg, encouraged her to develop her talents. She started studying with Tony Nell while in grammar school. During high school, at Dalton, she was excused at noon every day to study at the Grand Central Art School. She was accepted at the Yale School of Art but elected to study with John Sloan instead, which she did in New York from 1932 through 1936 and during the summer of 1936 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Ms. Regensburg Feist was member of the Society of Independent Artists, and her work appeared alongside works of such artists as John Sloan, Maurice Prendergast, Philip Evergood, and Joseph Stella at their annual shows. An active exhibitor in New York City, she also had works in group shows at the Montross and Saidenberg galleries. In 1936, she had two solo shows, at Montross and at the Santa Fe Museum of Art in New Mexico.
More recently, Ms. Feist had a solo show—"Family and Friends"—at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, PA., in 1996. Her work has also been included in group shows at Westmoreland Museum and the Wigmore Gallery, Gallery Schlesinger, and Hebrew Union College in New York City. It was also shown in a three-woman show, "Outsider Insider," at the Gallery Schlesinger. Her paintings are in the permanent collection of the New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe and the Westmoreland.