Stormwater Studios Resident Artists

Celebrating Gerard Erley’s Latest Achievements

We’re proud to announce that Stormwater Studios Resident Artist Gerard Erley has been awarded a Project Support Grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission to support his participation in the prestigious Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the Arts in Tampa early next year.

The Gasparilla Festival of the Arts—one of the nation’s top outdoor juried fine art shows—draws roughly 30,000 attendees annually and awards more than $90,000 in prizes, including a $15,000 Best of Show. Now entering its 56th year, the 2026 festival will be held February 28–March 1 at Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park.

This grant marks the fourteenth that Gerard has received from the SC Arts Commission, a remarkable milestone that reflects his continued dedication and artistic excellence.

Gerard has also been accepted into the 2026 ArtFields Festival in Lake City, SC—his tenth time exhibiting at the event. ArtFields is a major Southern art competition featuring 400+ works, over $100,000 in prizes, and special competitions including Portraiture and Plein Air. Gerard regularly participates in these additional competitions and has previously won both.

Regarding his oil painting Marsh Radiance, Gerard shares:

“‘Marsh Radiance’ is a studio concoction, not a representation of any particular place. The painting is a singular distillation of my impressions of the Lowcountry of South Carolina. The low sun, though hidden from view, transforms the many and diverse details of the scene into a harmonious whole. I find nature—or the contemplation thereof—an always available salve to the many woes of the world.’”

For more on Gerard and his work, visit gerarderley.com.

Lenayah Rayfords Solo Exhibition 

Lenayah Rayford, Stormwater Studios Resident Artist, is presenting her solo senior exhibition, “Mask, Mirror, Self,” at Columbia College as part of completing her BA in Studio Art, with minors in Art History and Liberal Arts.

The exhibition is open to the public through Wednesday, December 17. Visits from December 18–31 are available by appointment; contact Brittany Watkins, Director of the Goodall Gallery, at [email protected].

The Goodall Gallery is located in the Spears Center for the Arts, 1301 Columbia College Drive, Columbia, SC 29203, and is open Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Developed throughout 2025 under the guidance of faculty at Columbia College and Stormwater Studios, this body of work explores identity, perception, societal standards, and the emotional complexities of the human experience.

Rayford notes that, as an African American woman, her work is rooted in her own lived experience while also reflecting the perspectives of marginalized people historically overlooked in the art world. She investigates how self-expression is perceived and how societal expectations shape our understanding of identity—particularly within the context of womanhood, and specifically Black womanhood.