Gryphon Rue (b. New York City) is an artist, composer, and musician based in Brooklyn. His approach fuses collage, improvisation, and the recombination of materials and recordings to build works in both sound and image. Vibration, interference, and repetition link his sonic and visual worlds, articulating a practice rooted in the dynamic interplay of contrasting elements.
In his music, Rue shapes abstract pieces from electroacoustic textures and field recordings, creating soundscapes that blur the lines between the natural and the digitally transformed. Frequently, he draws directly from processes found in nature—feedback, cycles, emergence, and systemic interaction—using environmental recordings and processed acoustic instruments to emulate organic patterns and phenomena.
Primarily using collage and automatic drawing, Rue creates dense, multi-sourced compositions with esoteric imagery, cybernetic diagrams, and anthropological plates, among other sources. He presents these works in unusual formats such as acrylic skylights, cut metal, and found backpacks. These frames sharply contrast with the improvisational treatment of their content. Children’s backpacks, familiar and socially acceptable carriers of secrets, and skylights—designed to admit light—are here used to encase and condense imagined worlds.
“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, pulsing ambient techno, and Cluster’s proto-industrial chug” (The Wire).
His 2025 album I Keep My Diamond Necklace In A Pond Of Sparkling Water, has drawn acclaim for its ambitious scope and ecological imagination. Praised for its inventive use of unconventional instrumentation (Best Field Recordings on Bandcamp, April 2025), the album creates an “eco-fantasia” where the boundaries between human and non-human sound blur, “creaking and grumbling and humming with subterranean and oceanic immensity, singing in voices both animal and botanical” (The Quietus).
Rue’s discography includes I Keep My Diamond Necklace In A Pond Of Sparkling Water (2025), 4n_Objx (2024), A Spirit Appears to a Pair of Lovers (2022), Foliage of Caves (2020), and North of the Future (with Merche Blasco, 2020), on labels such as Not Not Fun, Astral Editions, Tiger Sushi, and Soap Library.
As a 2023-2024 Jerome Artist resident at Roulette, he premiered Playing The Beetles with Ka Baird and Qasim Naqvi (Best New Experimental Music on Bandcamp, November 2024), as well as North American premieres of Giusto Pio’s Motore Immobile and Ananta. Other collaborators include Christine Sun Kim, Susie Ibarra, Dean Wareham, Will Epstein, Alex Waterman, Sean Meehan, Edwin Torres, and Benton C Bainbridge. He has performed at venues and festivals such as Hauser & Wirth, Pace Gallery, Fondazione ICA Milano, de Young Museum, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, The Hepworth Wakefield, Vector Hack Festival, Roulette Mixology.
His programs with Montez Press Radio include conversations with figures such as David Behrman, “Blue” Gene Tryanny, Annea Lockwood, Clark Coolidge, and Fran Lebowitz. As editor and curator, Rue produced the book Strange Attractor (Inventory Press & Ballroom Marfa), exploring the poetics of networks, environmental events, and sound through contributions by Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Merlin Sheldrake, Bernadette Mayer, Beatrice Gibson, Haroon Mirza, among many others. He has organized exhibitions and festivals for institutions such as Ballroom Marfa, the Calder Foundation, and Printed Matter.
Contact: gryphonrue@gmail.com
SOLO DISCOGRAPHY
2025. I Keep My Diamond Necklace in a Pond of Sparkling Water, No Label
2024. 4n_Objx (Vinyl & Digital album), No Label
2022. A Spirit Appears to a Pair of Lovers (Cassette & Digital album), Not Not Fun
2020. Foliage of Caves (Cassette & Digital album), Soap Library
GROUP DISCOGRAPHY
2024. Playing The Beetles (Soap Library), Gryphon Rue, Ka Baird, Qasim Naqvi, Bess beetles
2022. Resounding: North of The Future (Tiger Sushi), Gryphon Rue, Merche Blasco, Bergsonist, Joakim, Ruth Garbus, Jenn Grossman, Léon & Sayed, Lee Gilboa, Bryce Hackford
2021. North of The Future (Astral Editions), Gryphon Rue & Merche Blasco
2020. Love is a Grasshopper Nearby (CAMP Editions), Vertical Foliage (Gryphon Rue & Heloise Tunstall-Behrens)
2016. Google Portrait (ft. Joakim), (Digital EP), Tiger Sushi
SOUNDTRACKS
2024. Endurance, (feature film) dir. Keren Cytter
2024. Queens in Queens, (short film) dir. Keren Cytter
2023. In the Spirit of Calder (feature documentary), dir. Marjoleine Boonstra
2023. SO UNREAL (feature documentary), A Spirit Appears to a Pair of Lovers (song), dir. Amanda Kramer
2023. PSYCHOTHERAPIST (short film), dir. Keren Cytter
2021. Clayton Patterson, Elsa Rensaa, and their dog Duke at 161 Essex St. (short film), dir. Sandy Rower
2019. Ballet-Object Animatics (short films), Calder Stories, Centro Botín
2018. Gropius Memory Palace, (short film), dir. Ben Thorp Brown
2012. Eucalyptus (short film), Calder Foundation
2012. Black Mobile with Hole (short film), Calder Foundation
2012. Bosquet is the Best Best (short film), Calder Foundation
MUSIC VIDEOS
2024. Shibboleth, dir. Keren Cytter
2024. Rake’s Progress, dir. Keren Cytter
2023. Watercolor Virus, dir. Benton C Bainbridge
2023. Rainbow Serpent, dir. Keren Cytter
2023. Acoustic Temple, dir. B. Wurtz
2023. Glaciermilk, dir. Dante Lentz
2023. Optical & Magnetic, dir. Taietzel Ticalos
2023. A Spirit Appears to a Pair of Lovers, dir. Benton C Bainbridge
2023. Hologram in Prague, dir. Gryphon Rue & Taietzel Ticalos
2023. Eros, music video, dir. DataSpaceTime
2023. Grass Light on Flesh, dir. Robert Buck
2023. Emotional Agility, dir. Abigail Child
2020. Love is a Grasshopper Nearby (as Vertical Foliage), dir. Sandy Rower
2020. Chaotic Repeller Distance-Towers, dir. James Powers
2016. Beethoven for Relaxation, dir. Max Grey
2016. Insect Express, dir. Emily Pelstring
2016. Google Portrait (ft. Joakim), with Benton C Bainbridge
SINGLE-CHANNEL VIDEO
2020. Rue Bainbridge: Here Come The Wormholes, with Benton C Bainbridge
2020. Rue Bainbridge: Biome, with Benton C Bainbridge
2018. Rue Bainbridge: Holocene Jitterbug,with Benton C Bainbridge
2018. LICENSE, with Robert Buck
2018. Google Portrait (ft. Christine Sun Kim & Dean Wareham), with Benton C Bainbridge
ARTIST BOOKS
2023. Dinosaur Land, edition of 20, Foreign & Domestic Gallery
2019. Strange Attractor, Pub. Inventory Press & Ballroom Marfa (editor, author of “Elias Sime,” “Mark Lombardi,” “Douglas Ross,” and joined in conversation with Merlin Sheldrake). Contributions by Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Thomas Ashcraft, Robert Buck, Alexander Calder, Beatrice Gibson, Phillipa Horan, Channa Horwitz, Lucky Dragons, Herbert Matter, Haroon Mirza, Chloe Aridjis, Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra, Douglas Kahn, Bernadette Mayer.)
WRITING
2025. Calder and Sound in Open Space Magazine, ed. Dorota Czerner
2024. Calder and Sound / Calder y el sonido in Tuning Calder’s Clouds, edited by Vic Brooks, Dr. Jennifer Burris, and Mariana Fernández
2021. Duchamp Coping Techniques, The Lacanian Review (issue 11, The Art of Singularities)
2021. Mission statement for arts center D R O N E, New York
2021. Clayton Patterson: Beauty Mark, Printed Matter at Swiss Institute, New York
2020. Calder & Varèse excerpted from Calder and Sound, in Sounds Lasting and Leaving, Luxembourg & Dayan (exhibition catalogue)
2019. Ballet-Object Animatics, in Calder Stories, Centro Botín (exhibition catalogue)
2018. Storm Tracker, in Dis-assemb-blies 08, Will Work For Good (magazine)
2018. Calder y el sonido in Alexander Calder: Teatro de Encuentros, Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires (exhibition catalogue)
2014. PostcART: Jay Miriam, Contemporary Lynx
2013. Calder and Sound in Alexander Calder: Avant-Garde in Motion, Düsseldorf: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (exhibition
catalogue)
RADIO
Montez Press Radio programs:
(Click here for archive on Soundcloud)
(Click here and search M.P.R. under “Gryphon Rue”)
2024: The Struggle of the Magicians: What is Italian Minimalism?
2024: Phill Niblock tribute
2022: Phill Niblock (Earmark X)
2022: Rip Hayman (Earmark IX)
2022: David Behrman (Earmark VIII)
2022: Niagara & Merche Blasco (Earmark VII)
2022: Annea Lockwood & Zach Phillips (Earmark VI)
2022. Cosmos; a Modular Circus on Strange Attractor, Short Waves / Long Distance, Co-presented by Wave Farm, Montez Press Radio, and The North American Shortwave Association.
2021: Clark Coolidge (Earmark V)
2021: Ben Vida & Mauro Hertig (Earmark IV)
2021: Max Eastley & Ruth Garbus (Earmark III)
2021: Shelley Hirsch & Charmaine Lee (Earmark II)
2021: “Blue” Gene Tyranny & Matt Marble (Earmark I)
2020: Fran Lebowitz: The Designated New Yorker
2020: Clayton Patterson: Artist & Kulturträger
2020: Gryphon Rue: Strange Attractor
CURATION
2021. Buddhist Bubblegum: Esoteric Buddhism in the Creative Process of Arthur Russell, Book launch for author Matt Marble and performance by Singing Tractors, Printed Matter/St Marks
2021. The Location of Serenity, D R O N E, New York
2021. Clayton Patterson: Beauty Mark, Printed Matter/St Marks
2019. Calder Stories, Curator & editor of music for animated ballets,
Centro Botin
2017. Symbol Rush, Clayton Gallery and Outlaw Art Museum, New York
2017. Strange Attractor, Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX
2016. The Sump (now H0L0) event series, New York
2016. Earle Brown’s Calder Piece, 1963–66, Calder Foundation, Earle Brown Foundation, Talujon Percussion Quartet, Friends Seminary, New York
2015. Eureka, sound installations. Pace Gallery, New York
2013. They might well have been remnants of the boat, with Katherine Cohn and Victoria Brooks, Calder Foundation, The High Line Hotel, New York
2012. Oh, you mean cellophane and all that crap, with Katherine Cohn, Victoria Brooks, and Kevin Barry, Calder Foundation, The Mckittrick Hotel, New York
PRESENTATIONS
2021. Calder’s Music: How The Mobile Changed The Sonic Arts, Calder-Picasso, de Young Museum, San Francisco
2019. Calder and Sound, Index Festival, The Hepworth Wakefield, England
2019. Panel discussion, The Lacanian Unconscious: A No-Brainer, National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis, New York
2018. Calder and Sound, Alexander Calder: Radical Inventor, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
2018. Rue Bainbridge, Center for Visual Music Symposium, Sonoma State University
2018. Playing The Beetles, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Utrecht
2013. Calder and Sound, Avant-Garde in Motion, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025. Paper Room, Halsey Mckay, New York
2025. Social Photography XI, Carriage Trade, New York
2024. Waste Yarn Project W/ Friends Cup Project, Paris
2023. AFTER LIVES, Foreign & Domestic, New York
2022. The Patriot, O’Flaherty’s, New York
2021. Friends & Family, Magenta Plains, New York
RESIDENCIES
2023-2024. Gryphon Rue: Roulette Jerome Artist Resident
2019. Rue Bainbridge: Andrew Freedman Home, New York
2019. Rue Bainbridge: CultureHub, New York
2017. Rue Bainbridge: Public Works Department, Governor’s Island, New York
2016. Gryphon Rue: NDSM Treehouse, Amsterdam
