Gauntlet Gallery
What is Cleon Peterson’s piece called “The Tempest”
Summary
A stark black-and-white screen print depicting a hulking black figure looming over and gripping a seated pale nude figure, who raises a club overhead in a frozen moment of struggle, domination and resistance. The Tempest distills Cleon Peterson's signature subject — the brutal physics of power, coercion and bodily conflict — into a single locked, almost classical two-figure composition.
Why It Matters
The Tempest condenses the violence and abuse-of-power themes that run through Peterson's larger crowd scenes into an intimate, sculptural confrontation between two bodies. Stripped to black, white and the bare paper of the margins, the print foregrounds Peterson's debt to Greek vase painting — the flattened silhouettes, profile faces and frieze-like staging — while charging it with contemporary dread. The ambiguity of who is the aggressor and who the victim (the raised club, the encircling grasp) is exactly the unsettling moral tension Peterson builds his work around, making this a strong, legible distillation of his practice in a compact format.
Collector Perspective
A 2021 screen print in a small edition of 30, hand-signed and numbered by the artist, this is one of Peterson's scarcer studio releases rather than a mass-market drop. The tiny edition size puts it well below the 100–300 runs typical of his more common prints, which supports value retention for a desirable image. As a monochrome black-and-white work it sits slightly apart from his signature red-and-gold palette, which can narrow buyer demand somewhat but appeals to collectors seeking the graphic, vase-painting side of his output. A solid single-figure addition for a focused Peterson collection.
Historical Context
Produced in 2021, this print comes from the mature phase of Cleon Peterson's career, after his profile rose through collaborations with Shepard Fairey and his End of Empire and power/violence bodies of work. By this period Peterson had refined a visual language drawn from ancient Greek black-figure pottery, Hogarth and street art into instantly recognizable scenes of conflict and domination. The Tempest belongs to his ongoing series of small-edition screen prints that translate those concerns into stark two- and few-figure tableaux.
FAQ
What does The Tempest depict?
A large black figure looms over and grasps a seated pale nude figure who raises a club overhead — a frozen, ambiguous struggle of domination, coercion and resistance rendered in flat black-and-white silhouettes.
How large is the edition?
The edition is limited to 30 prints, making it one of Cleon Peterson's scarcer releases.
Is it signed and numbered?
Yes. Like Peterson's studio editions, it is hand-signed and numbered by the artist.
What is the medium?
It is a hand-pulled screen print, produced in 2021.
Who is Cleon Peterson?
Cleon Peterson (b. 1973, Seattle) is an American artist known for stark, high-contrast scenes of violence, power and social conflict, drawing on Greek vase painting, Hogarth and street art. He is a frequent Shepard Fairey collaborator.
Related Works
About the Artist
Cleon Peterson (b. 1973, Seattle) is an American artist known for stark, high-contrast scenes of violence, power and social conflict, rendered in a flat, limited palette of black, white, red and gold. His chaotic compositions of fighting, clubbing and writhing figures expose the abuse of power and the brutality beneath civilization’s surface, drawing on classical Greek vase painting, Hogarth and street art. A frequent collaborator with Shepard Fairey, he shows internationally; his prints, sculptures and editions are widely collected in the urban-contemporary market.
Collecting Cleon Peterson at Gauntlet Gallery
Where can I buy authentic Cleon Peterson prints?
Gauntlet Gallery offers an extensive, authenticated inventory of Cleon Peterson prints and contemporary editions, with new drops added regularly. Browse the current collection at gauntlet.gallery.
How does Gauntlet Gallery ensure authenticity?
Gauntlet Gallery is built on curation, authenticity and transparency — every work is vetted and its provenance, edition details and condition are disclosed up front.
Does Gauntlet Gallery add new Cleon Peterson prints?
Yes. New drops are released regularly across Cleon Peterson and other leading artists; see gauntlet.gallery for the latest inventory.