PLAYGROUND DETROIT presents Forms in Motion, an exhibition that brings together Emma Kinnison and Hannah Burr in an exploration of materiality, color, and intuitive processes. Working in varied mediums including steel sculpture and dimensional abstract painting, the artists share an openness to the possibilities that emerge through making. Each allows the qualities of her chosen medium to help determine the resulting work, creating abstract forms that carry a sense of movement, energy, and individual presence.
Detroit-based sculptor Emma Kinnison transforms steel into fluid, organic forms. Responding to the material’s ability to bend through applying physical resistance, she develops dynamic sculptures that hold strength and apparent lightness together. Bold, hand-applied color amplifies their expressive forms, inviting the viewer to trace contours and gestures unfolding through space.
Visual artist Hannah Burr approaches abstraction through a curiosity about texture, perception, and play. In her upholstered paintings, wood, foam, batting, and found cotton create soft, rounded supports for poured acrylic. Gravity, chemical reactions, and various environmental conditions influence the final surfaces. Each painting develops through deliberate preparation and unexpected events, preserving the energy of its creation in swirling pools of color, edges, and textures.
Kinnison’s sculptures and Burr’s paintings reveal forms of abstraction in motion and an ongoing exchange between artist and medium. Forms in Motion invites viewers to witness this exchange, and to slow down, follow a line, and discover how the decisions and surprises of making remain present in the finished work.
“Bringing both artists’ work together reveals distinct but similar approaches, each following a shared trust in their own sense of intuition and material discovery. They each remain responsive to what happens as the work develops, allowing unanticipated curves, or interactions of color to suggest the direction, leading the path forward. The use of bold colors along with unexpected juxtaposition is another connection between their practices, providing emotional resonance and further shaping our perception of weight, volume, and shape,” Paulina Petkoski, Curator.
MEET THE ARTISTS
Emma Kinnison is a Detroit-based sculptor whose steel works explore organic form, rhythm, and emotion. Her practice combines responsive shaping with bold, hand-applied color.
Hannah Burr is a Detroit-based artist and author working across painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, and art books. As a graduate of Brown University in Fine Art and Religious Studies, she has exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Currier Museum of Art; and The Drawing Center, New York, along many other exhibitions.
Forms in Motion: Emma Kinnison + Hannah Burr opens Friday, December 4, 2026 from 6-9PM at PLAYGROUND DETROIT, 2845 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, MI 48207.
Artist talk, exhibition closing date to be confirmed.
