Visiting Artist Lecture with Victoria Dugger, MFA ’22 | 2026 Margie E. West Alumni Prize

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. Dugger will present the 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 Thursday, August 27th at 4 pm in room S151 of the Lamar Dodd School of Art (adjacent to the Margie E. West gallery). The lecture will be followed by an opening reception from 5 – 7 pm for “Runner Up,” alongside four new exhibitions in the Dodd Galleries.

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.