Steven Adrian Stewart, founder of the Lower East Side’s Kansas Gallery, is dead at 46. The gallerist, who later cofounded Futures Gallery in Melbourne, Australia, died on May 26 in Lawrence, Kansas, near where he grew up. No cause of death was provided.
Stewart was best known for Kansas, the gallery he founded in 2011. Through Kansas, Stewart exhibited or represented Michael Berryhill, Mira Dancy, Carey Denniston, Ethan Greenbaum, Clay Ketter, Sylvan Lionni, David J. Merritt, Halsey Rodman, Jessica Sanders, Strauss Bourque-LaFrance, Rachel de Joode, John Houck, Ryan Lauderdale, Rob McLeish, Scott Nedrelow, Virginia Poundstone, and Tamara Zahaykevich. The gallery closed in 2016.
Joel Estes, the dealer’s brother, told ARTnews that Stewart moved to New York City in 2000 after finishing high school in Leavenworth, Kansas, and briefly studying at the University of Kansas. According to Estes, Stewart quickly worked his way into the art scene, holding positions at Chelsea’s Bellwether Gallery (closed in 2009), Artists Space, Alexander & Bonin (closed in 2024), Freight + Volume, and Sue Scott Gallery (closed in 2012).
“He was so casual and comfortable with people. He would enter a room and light the place up,” remembered Estes. “He had a special way of making a connection with every single person he met. He touched a lot of people, who are going to miss him.”
Sometime after closing Kansas, Stewart moved to Melbourne, Australia with his wife, artist Jen Berean. There, he worked at Neon Parc and Gertrude Contemporary before cofounding Futures Gallery in 2021. In 2022, he moved back to Lawrence and spent some time at Elizabeth Leach Gallery in Portland, Oregon. Over the last year, according to Estes, the two brothers were developing a furniture company.
In an Instagram post, artist Ethan Greenbaum said that Stewart gave him his first solo exhibition in New York and later represented him. “He was a true believer in the art and artists he loved, and I’m forever grateful for the confidence he placed in me and my work,” Greenbaum wrote. The artist wrote further that they fell out of touch for some years, but reconnected in Oregon more recently and became friends “outside of any art context.”
“I miss you Steven. Thank you for everything,” Greenbaum wrote.
Sylvann Lionni, an artist and associate professor at the University of Oregon in Eugene, wrote on Instagram that he and Stewart “fell in love instantly” after meeting at his studio in 2007. “He was a true believer—in art, in artists, in music, in poetry, in design, in food, in all the things that people make that bring us together,” Lionni wrote. “He was a hustler, a romantic, a showman, a connoisseur; he never held anything back, and he wore his heart on his sleeve.”
“I met so many people I love through Steve, learned so much from him. We had wild adventures together and pulled off hare-brained scheme— usually cooked up on the racquetball court or over a pool table. He knew all my secrets and I knew… some of his. He believed in my work before I did and he made me a better artist. He lived a lot of life in 46 short years. I loved him dearly and miss him desperately.”
Stewart is survived by Berean, and their two children, Francis Claude Stewart Berean and Rainer Beau Stewart Berean.
