The Dodd Galleries at the University of Georgia are pleased to announce Victoria Dugger as our 2026 Margie E. West Prize recipient. Dugger will be in conversation with Associate Professor Benjamin Britton on Thursday, August 27th in room S151 of the Lamar Dodd School of Art (adjacent to the Margie E. West gallery), in advance of the public reception that evening. Victoria Dugger (American, b. 1991, Columbus, Georgia) holds an MFA in Studio Art from the Lamar Dodd School of Art (2022). Of...
The Dodd Galleries at the University of Georgia are pleased to announce Victoria Dugger as our 2026 Margie E. West Prize recipient. Dugger will be in conversation with Associate Professor Benjamin Britton on Thursday, August 27th in room S151 of the Lamar Dodd School of Art (adjacent to the Margie E. West gallery), in advance of the public reception that evening.
Victoria Dugger (American, b. 1991, Columbus, Georgia) holds an MFA in Studio Art from the Lamar Dodd School of Art (2022). Of her time at the Dodd, 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.”
A lifelong resident of Georgia and living in Athens since her completion of her MFA, Dugger’s visual language—with imagery often exaggerated and fantastical—remains largely autobiographical and grounded in her embodied experience. Dugger consistently examines her experiences of Black girlhood and disability through the lens of the Southern Gothic, exploring the politics of embodiment and sharply speaking 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.
Dugger was named the winner of the 2024 Hudgens Prize (Duluth, GA), 2023 Southern Prize for Visual Arts, and 2023 Southern Prize for Visual Arts Georgia Fellowship. Dugger was recently a resident at the MacDowell Artist Residency (Peterborough, NH) and the Lyndon House Arts Center (Athens, GA).
Dugger 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). 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), Lamar Dodd School of Art (Athens, GA), and Swan Coach House Gallery (Atlanta, GA), among others. Dugger’s work has been featured in 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. She is represented by Sargent’s Daughters.
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 (’08, MFA with distinction), Pam Longobardi (’81, BFA), Zipporah Camille Thompson (’15, MFA), Erin Dunn (’14 MA), Hong Hong (’14 MFA) and Kristine Potter (’01 BFA Photography and BA Art History). 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, 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 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.
For more information, contact Rachel Waldrop, Director and Curator, Dodd Galleries and Atheneum: rachel.waldrop@uga.edu. The Dodd Galleries are open M-Fri in the main Lamar Dodd School of Art building, from 9am-4:30pm. The Lamar Dodd School of Art is closed on weekends, University holidays, and UGA Football home game days.
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. For support opportunities, contact Lynh Tran, Associate Director of Development lynh.tran@uga.edu
Victoria Dugger
