[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Stevestewart.jpg?w=889″]<\/p>\n
\n\tSteven Adrian Stewart, founder of the Lower East Side\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\n\tStewart 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.\u00a0The gallery closed in 2016.<\/p>\n
\n\tJoel Estes, the dealer\u2019s brother, told ARTnews<\/em> 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\u2019s Bellwether Gallery (closed in 2009), Artists Space, Alexander & Bonin (closed in 2024), Freight + Volume, and Sue Scott Gallery (closed in 2012).<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHe was so casual and comfortable with people. He would enter a room and light the place up,\u201d remembered Estes. \u201cHe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSometime 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.<\/p>\n \n\tIn an Instagram post, artist Ethan Greenbaum said that Stewart gave him his first solo exhibition in New York and later represented him. \u201cHe was a true believer in the art and artists he loved, and I\u2019m forever grateful for the confidence he placed in me and my work,\u201d Greenbaum wrote. The artist wrote further that they fell out of touch for some years, but reconnected in Oregon more recently and became friends \u201coutside of any art context.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI miss you Steven. Thank you for everything,\u201d Greenbaum wrote.<\/p>\n \n\tSylvann Lionni, an artist and associate professor at the University of Oregon in Eugene, wrote on Instagram that he and Stewart \u201cfell in love instantly\u201d after meeting at his studio in 2007. \u201cHe was a true believer\u2014in art, in artists, in music, in poetry, in design, in food, in all the things that people make that bring us together,\u201d Lionni wrote. \u201cHe was a hustler, a romantic, a showman, a connoisseur; he never held anything back, and he wore his heart on his sleeve.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI met so many people I love through Steve, learned so much from him. We had wild adventures together and pulled off hare-brained scheme\u2014 usually cooked up on the racquetball court or over a pool table. He knew all my secrets and I knew\u2026 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tStewart is survived by Berean, and their two children, Francis Claude Stewart Berean and Rainer Beau Stewart Berean.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/market\/steven-adrian-stewart-founder-kansas-gallery-dead-46-1234789076\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Stevestewart.jpg?w=889″] Steven Adrian Stewart, founder of the Lower East Side\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1987406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1987406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1987406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1987406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1987406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}