In recognition of their outstanding bodies of work, Daniel Embree (MFA '13) and Jessica Borusky (MFA '13)  received the 2013 Rose Hill Performance Art Award. Their work will be exhibited in this year's "Graduating Students and Award Recipients Exhibition" on view April 16–May 18, 2013.

The performance area established the Rose Hill Performance Art Award in 2008, in memory of Rose Hill (MFA '03). She died in the winter of 2008 after a long battle with cancer. In Hill's words, the award aims to honor "someone who finds performance art at the museum school and then just throws his or herself wholeheartedly into creating their performance language and isn't afraid to get dirty doing it but has respect for the life and pain of other living things."

Embree's recent work involves text, images and performance art. He appropriates gestures from Mormon rituals and examines gay issues within Mormonism, including marginalization, exclusion and paradox. Though he is currently exiled from his childhood faith, he seeks to recreate and share the uplifting, spiritual experiences of his heritage through art.

Borusky is a Floridian feminist who currently resides and works in Boston, MA. Through humorous, persona-based performance for video, her work deals with ways in which language surrounding and marketing the American body often reflect oppressive ideals.

Left Image: Daniel Embree, Blessings, 2013. Installation image of performance at Studio Soto, January 18, 2013. Photo by Michael Barber.
Right Image: Jessica Borusky, The Posture Grid! (still), 2013. Performance for video.