Suzanne Sullivan | The Wilderness of Mirrors
April 18 - June 7, 2026
BROOKLYN METAL WORKS
640 Dean St, Brooklyn, NY
“In a wilderness of mirrors. What will the spider do…” (T.S. Eliot’s Gerontion)
In the Gallery at Brooklyn Metal Works is pleased to announce Suzanne Sullivan’s solo exhibition, The Wilderness of Mirrors. On view April 18th to June 7th, this installation of new hand-built porcelain works by the artist takes its name from an infamous memo by James Angleton, the CIA’s notorious Cold War-era chief of counter-espionage, who described spy operations as a “wilderness of mirrors” – “that myriad of stratagems, deceptions, artifices … an ever fluid landscape where fact and illusion merge.”
In making these pieces, Sullivan has stepped into the world of double agents and clandestine operatives, of secret codes and paranoia. Sullivan revels in the surreal and foggy atmosphere of spies, the setting in which one is able to fluidly maneuver between the practical and the make-believe. Enigmas and chaos, clues and games to solve: the vernacular of espionage allows Sullivan to play with the questions that inspire her practice and to rethink her work’s allegiances. Is this useful? Is this just for fun? What is real? What is surreal? With her signature fantastical porcelain creations, Sullivan has crafted her own wilderness of mirrors for both reflection and interrogation.
The Wilderness of Mirrors opens In the Gallery at Brooklyn Metal Works on Saturday, April 18th with a free public reception from 7 - 9 pm. The exhibition is organized by Brooklyn Metal Works in collaboration with the artist.
RELATED PROGRAMMING
Opening Reception
Saturday, April 18th, 2026
7:00 - 9:00 pm EST
In the Gallery*
Floor 2
Brooklyn Metal Works
640 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY 11238
Suzanne Sullivan was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1965, and grew up influenced by the arts and crafts traditions of the Pacific Northwest. She graduated with a BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1987. Her ceramics are hand-built and organic in form and feature intricate abstract patterns. She works primarily in porcelain and explores the boundary between functional and non-functional. Since 2018, she has installed numerous installations in various venues and galleries, inspired by themes including Homer’s “Odyssey,” “Æsop’s Fables,” Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” and Martin Johnson Heade’s 1871 painting, “Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds.” Her most recent exhibit – an installation entitled “Initial Singularity,” at The Clay Studio, in Philadelphia, this past spring – was a series of works inspired by “Cosmicomics,” the book of stories by Italo Calvino, the Italian novelist and short story writer. She lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
