Victoria Dugger receives 2026 Margie E. West Alumni Prize and presents exhibition “Runner Up”

The Dodd Galleries at the University of Georgia is pleased to announce Victoria Dugger MFA ’22 as the recipient of the 2026 Margie E. West Alumni Prize and featured artist in the accompanying solo exhibition “Runner Up” in the Margie E. West Gallery from August 27 through November 20, 2026.

The public is invited to a Visiting Artist Lecture with Dugger in conversation with Benjamin Britton, associate professor of art, on August 27 at 4 pm in room S151 of the Lamar Dodd School of Art. The lecture will be followed by an opening reception from 5 – 7 pm for “Runner Up,” alongside four additional exhibitions in the Dodd Galleries.

A lifelong resident of Georgia and living in Athens since the completion of her MFA at the Lamar Dodd School of Art in 2022, Dugger consistently examines her experiences of Black girlhood and disability through the lens of the Southern Gothic. Dugger’s visual language—with imagery often exaggerated and fantastical—remains largely autobiographical and grounded in her embodied experience.

On her tenure as a graduate student at the art school in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, Dugger says that it “offered a period of focus and development that continues to inform my practice. The West Award provides meaningful support to sustain and expand that work moving forward.”

Dugger explores the politics of embodiment and sharply speaks to experiences of Blackness, femininity, disability, and desire. With a maximalist palette and multimedia adornments comprising gingham, glitter and bows, Dugger addresses abjection and body horror with both a wry sense of humor and an art historical sensibility.

Over the past few years, Dugger has received acclaim through the 2024 Hudgens Prize, 2023 Southern Prize for Visual Arts, and 2023 Southern Prize for Visual Arts Georgia Fellowship. She has had recent solo exhibitions at Sargent’s Daughters (New York, NY), Shirley Fiterman Art Center (New York, NY), Lyndon House Arts Center (Athens, GA), the Hudgens Center for Art and Learning (Duluth, GA), and Container Gallery, Columbus State University (Columbus, GA). Dugger’s work has been featured in Artforum, Hyperallergic, Artnet News, Artnews, Art Observed, Whitehot Magazine, Arts Atlanta, The New York Times, Burnaway, Frieze, Vogue, and artdaily; and she was included in New American Paintings 159.

Dugger was recently a resident at the MacDowell Artist Residency (Peterborough, NH) and the Lyndon House Arts Center (Athens, GA). Her work has been included in group exhibitions at JDJ Gallery (New York, NY), Kravets Wehby Gallery (New York, NY), Fierman Gallery (New York, NY), The Minnesota Museum of American Art (St. Paul, MN), Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art (Biloxi, MS), VSOP Projects (Greenpoint, NY), Atlanta Contemporary (Atlanta, GA), Museum of Sex (New York, NY), JEFF (Marfa, TX), Dodd Galleries at the Lamar Dodd School of Art (Athens, GA), and Swan Coach House Gallery (Atlanta, GA), among others. She is represented by Sargent’s Daughters.

Related events include:

• Visiting Artist Lecture with Victoria Dugger in conversation with Benjamin Britton, associate professor of Art on August 27 at 4 pm
• Exhibition Opening Reception for Runner Up and additional Dodd Galleries exhibitions on August 27 from 5 to 7 pm

About the Margie E. West Prize 

Established in 2020, the Margie E. West Prize recognizes an accomplished artist or scholar who graduated from the Lamar Dodd School of Art with a solo exhibition in the Margie E. West Gallery. Past recipients of the Margie E West Prize include John Douglas Powers MFA ’08, Pam Longobardi BFA ’81, Zipporah Camille Thompson MFA ’15, Erin Dunn MA ’14, Hong Hong MFA ’14, and Kristine Potter BFA and BA ’01. The Lamar Dodd School of Art is grateful for the support of the West family for our programming and exhibitions in the Marjorie Eichenlaub West Gallery, which is supported by the Marjorie Eichenlaub West Gallery Endowment Fund.

Margie West served on the boards of the High Museum and the Georgia Museum of Art, and was a long-time member of the Forward Arts Foundation and a founding member of the Ceramic Circle of Atlanta. Her love of the arts was shared and passed down to her family, as her granddaughters attended the Lamar Dodd School of Art. Margie’s contributions to the arts will be part of her lasting legacy. She will always be remembered as a voracious collector with a keen eye and unbridled passion for the arts.

The annual Margie E. West Prize is supported by the Marjorie E. West Gallery Endowment Fund. Additional support is provided by UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and The Lamar Dodd School of Art.

Dodd Galleries Hours

The Dodd Galleries are open Monday – Friday in the main Lamar Dodd School of Art building on 270 River Road in Athens, Georgia from 9 am – 4:30 pm. The Lamar Dodd School of Art is closed on weekends, University holidays, and UGA Football home game days.

Contacts

For more information, contact Rachel Waldrop, Director and Curator, Dodd Galleries and Athenaeum: rachel.waldrop@uga.edu.

For support opportunities, contact Lynh Tran, Associate Director of Development lynh.tran@uga.edu.