Calder Gardens Announces “Cave Rainbow in Negative Color,” a Commissioned Concert by Gryphon Rue

Philadelphia, PA, March 9, 2026—Calder Gardens, the new cultural destination dedicated to the art of Alexander Calder, announced today the first program in its inaugural commissions series, Artists as Gardens: a concert by artist, composer, and musician, Gryphon Rue. Titled Cave Rainbow in Negative Color, this new work is a sonic portrait of the composer, featuring solo and trio works.

The Artists as Gardens series invites contemporary artists, working across a wide range of disciplines, to think of their practice as a garden that changes with the seasons and other natural cycles. For the inaugural program, Rue offers this two-part concert—the first, a heterogeneous solo magnetic tape piece; the second, a trio performance of a slower, meditative work—with performances at 5:30 pm and at 7:21 pm (sunset), aligned with the beginning of the spring equinox. The first-ever sound-based performance at Calder Gardens, this concert explores how time is felt, remembered, and distorted, seeking to stretch and replenish our tactile, lived experience of its passage. Seating will be carefully arranged to create a dynamic, immersive soundscape, with musicians positioned throughout the gallery in conversation with Alexander Calder’s works. This program offers a rare chance to experience live contemporary music in direct dialogue with modern masterworks—an encounter that invites close listening, looking, and shared contemplation.

Conceived as a sound collage for magnetic tape and electronics, Cave Rainbow in Negative Color draws from Rue’s reservoir of field recordings captured locally in Calder Gardens and along the Schuylkill River, as well as from ethnographic archives and obscure corners of the internet. Drawing on natural processes such as cycles, feedback, and emergence, the piece moves between notated cues and improvisation. Sources entwine, seep through each other, and morph in color, gathering like a private weather system. For his new arrangement of Giusto Pio’s Motore Immobile & Ananta, Rue (voice, organ) will be joined by Julia Den Boer (organ and piano) and Odetta Hartman (violin). Motore Immobile refers to Aristotle’s concept of the “prime mover,” the cause of all the motion in the universe, which itself is not moved by any prior action.

“We are thrilled to welcome multidisciplinary artist Gryphon Rue to present the first sonic experience at Calder Gardens and kick off our new Artists as Gardens commission series,” says Juana Berrío, Marsha Perelman Senior Director of Programs of Calder Gardens. “Each Artists as Gardens commission embraces the same experimental ethos that shaped the work of Alexander Calder in the 20th century, activating it through time-based works that unfold in dialogue with the present moment. Just as the gardens invite us to notice how nature transforms itself through different seasons, each artist will explore new and evolving ideas aligned with their own rhythms and cycles. Rue’s performance, taking place following the spring equinox, is the first of several programs the artist will present at Calder Gardens over the coming months. Like all our programming, this concert is conceived to elevate the mind, body, and spirit, bringing the space to life as a place of both cultural enrichment and personal renewal.”

“I am delighted to be the first commissioned artist in the new Artists as Gardens series at Calder Gardens,” says Rue. “I will be debuting a new solo piece titled Cave Rainbow in Negative Color, which collages field recordings captured at Calder Gardens and along the Schuylkill River, with ethnographic archival selections. I will also be presenting a trio performance with incredible musicians, Julia Den Boer and Odetta Hartman, of Motore Immobile & Ananta—a meditative work by the Italian spiritual minimalist Giusto Pio.”

Cave Rainbow in Negative Color
Artists as Gardens Commission Concert by Gryphon Rue
Saturday, March 21, 2026
First performance: Doors open 5 pm; concert 5:30 pm
Second performance: Doors open 6:50 pm; concert 7:21 pm
$65; members $50
Seating is offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

Artists as Gardens is a series of new, multifaceted commissions by established contemporary artists working across a wide range of disciplines. This new series is the core of a slate of programs designed to extend Calder’s spirit of experimentation and collaboration that activate Calder Gardens year-round. Encouraged to think of their practice as a garden that changes with the seasons and other natural cycles, the artists will conceive a series of time-based programs—self-guided audio walks, sound- and movement-based performances, listening sessions, healing practices, screenings and discursive events, and ecology-focused initiatives—and present them at Calder Gardens over a period of months, often working in collaboration with local communities. Offering experiences that are as dynamic and multifaceted as Calder’s work, these programs invite artists, cultural producers, and audiences to encounter Calder Gardens not as a static place, but as a living space for exchange, reflection, and transformation.

Future Artists as Gardens commissions will include those by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer and artist Raven Chacon, and Chilean poet, visual artist, and activist Cecilia Vicuña. Dates and additional details will be announced in the coming months.

In addition to Artists as Gardens series programming, ongoing and recurring programs at Calder Gardens include:

• Contemplation Walks, daily guided experiences that invite participants on a guided reflective journey through the indoor and outdoor spaces. Each 45-minute walk is uniquely shaped by elements of the present moment and the perspectives of those participating. (Private walks are also available.)
• Moon Alignment Series, a guided meditative practice tied to the lunar cycle taking place after hours twice per month, coinciding with the full and new moons.
• People Talking, a series of conversations that expand on themes relevant to Calder Gardens and contemporary culture, centering storytelling and interdisciplinary dialogues.
• Pictures in Motion, a film and video art series that presents a range of moving-image works, including experimental cinema, artist films, and documentaries. Each program is organized around themes that reflect Calder Gardens’ curatorial focus, showing how artists use motion, time, and sound to expand contemporary visual practice.
• Silent Days, a monthly series that invites visitors to slow down, turn inward, and experience quiet attention on a day Calder Gardens is otherwise closed, with reduced audience capacity. With full access to the galleries and gardens, Silent Days encourage quiet contemplation and sensory awareness, which can support visitors who are neurodivergent, living with dementia, or have other sensory sensitives.

For a list of upcoming programs, visit the Programs page of the website.

About the Artist
Gryphon Rue (b. New York City) is an artist, composer, and musician. His 2025 album, I Keep My Diamond Necklace in a Pond of Sparkling Water, was hailed as “creaking and grumbling and humming with subterranean and oceanic immensity, singing in voices both animal and botanical” (The Quietus) and selected for Best Field Recordings on Bandcamp. “A conjuror in stereo” (Electronic Sound) who “plays with sonics in a way that a visual artist might manipulate light” (The Quietus), Rue brings to his music “restless energy, offering up bright, sweet packet-sized servings of electroacoustic crispness” (The Wire).

Sponsors
Programming at Calder Gardens is generously supported by Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz, Donna Green, and Michael Sternberg.

About Calder Gardens
Calder Gardens is a new art institution dedicated to Alexander Calder (1898–1976), one of the most acclaimed and influential artists of the 20th century. Building on the artist’s enduring legacy, it is conceived as a place where an evolving interplay between art, architecture, nature, and programming encourages contemplation and self-discovery.

Set within a landscape featuring more than 250 varieties of plants in gardens conceived by Piet Oudolf, Calder Gardens’ 18,000-square-foot building designed by Herzog & de Meuron houses a rotating installation of artworks by Calder. Spanning the artist’s 50-year career and diverse bodies of work, the objects on view respond to architectural moments rather than art historical narratives. This selection of artworks slowly changes over time, echoing the natural rhythms of the seasons. Some will remain for years, while others are only on view for a few months, creating an ever-changing environment that encourages close looking and repeat visits.

In dialogue with Calder’s own experimental practice, programming at Calder Gardens presents performances, sonic experiences, screenings, lectures, and other events that connect the artist’s legacy of innovation to contemporary art. Emphasizing mindfulness and environmental awareness, Calder Gardens is a space that foregrounds the interconnectedness of all elements of life.

Calder Gardens is located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in the heart of Philadelphia, a city with deep connections to the Calder family across several generations. It extends this lineage to the present day and joins Philadelphia’s rich artistic and cultural communities.

Calder Gardens has been realized thanks to Philadelphia philanthropists working with the Calder Foundation, with significant support from the City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Through an innovative collaboration, the Barnes Foundation provides administrative, operational, and educational programming support for Calder Gardens. The Trustees of Calder Gardens is a section 509(a)(3) supporting organization that provides strategic and artistic direction, as well as financial support, to sustain the vision for Calder Gardens.

To learn more, visit caldergardens.org, or follow us on Facebook and Instagram @caldergardens

Land Acknowledgment
Calder Gardens is located in Lenapehoking, on the unceded land, waters, and air of the Lenape Peoples. We honor that this land and its people are timeless, and we pay respect to their Elders—past, present, and future. We support the sovereignty of the Lenape Peoples and are committed to uplifting their autonomy and rights in their homelands. This commitment exemplifies a reciprocal relationship to all beings and elements, recognizing that we are not separate from Earth.

About Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder (b. 1898, Philadelphia–d. 1976, New York City), whose illustrious career spanned much of the 20th century, is the most acclaimed and influential sculptor of our time. Born into a family of celebrated though more classically trained artists, Calder utilized his innovative genius to profoundly change the course of modern art. He began in the 1920s by developing a new method of sculpting: by bending and twisting wire, he essentially “drew” three-dimensional figures in space. He is renowned for the invention of the mobile, whose suspended, abstract elements move and balance in changing harmony. From the 1950s onward, Calder increasingly devoted himself to making outdoor sculpture on a grand scale from bolted steel plate. Today, these stately titans grace public plazas in cities throughout the world.

Image: Gryphon Rue, photo by Lena Shkoda

For additional information, please contact:
Deirdre Maher, Lead Director of Communications, Calder Gardens and the Barnes Foundation
press@caldergardens.org / 215.278.7162