Steven Adrian Stewart, founder of Kansas Gallery, dies at 46
Steven Adrian Stewart, the gallerist behind one of the Lower East Side’s more closely watched contemporary spaces, died on May 26 in Lawrence, Kansas. He was 46. No cause of death was provided.
Stewart founded Kansas Gallery in 2011 and built it into a compact but influential platform for artists including 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, after five years in business in New York.
Born and raised near Lawrence, 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 his brother, Joel Estes, he moved quickly into the city’s gallery ecosystem, working at Bellwether Gallery, Artists Space, Alexander & Bonin, Freight + Volume, and Sue Scott Gallery. That early run placed him inside a generation of dealers who helped define the Lower East Side as a serious destination for contemporary art.
After Kansas closed, Stewart relocated to Melbourne, Australia with his wife, artist Jen Berean. There he worked at Neon Parc and Gertrude Contemporary before cofounding Futures Gallery in 2021. He returned to Lawrence in 2022 and later spent time at Elizabeth Leach Gallery in Portland, Oregon. Estes said the two brothers had also been developing a furniture company over the last year.
Tributes from artists and friends pointed to Stewart’s unusually open manner and his instinct for connection. Michael Berryhill wrote on Instagram that he and Stewart had reconnected in Oregon after years apart and became friends “outside of any art context.” Sylvann Lionni, who met Stewart in 2007, described him as a believer in art, music, poetry, design, and food, and as someone who “never held anything back.”
Stewart is survived by Berean and their two children, Francis Claude Stewart Berean and Rainer Beau Stewart Berean. His career moved between New York and Melbourne, but the through line was the same: a dealer’s eye, a social ease, and a deep loyalty to artists.
