On the occasion of Hong Kong’s biggest charity art event, the Hong Kong ArtWalk 2011, 2P Contemporary Art Gallery presents I’ll Be Your Mirror, a special exhibition of award-winning portraits of Hong Kong and China’s most respected and established contemporary artists by Hong Kong-based French artist Virgile Simon Bertrand.

Reinstating formality in portraiture using his distinctively ascetic and contemplative style the photographs evidence the creative dialogue between Bertrand and his subjects.  I’ll Be Your Mirror features portraits of leading artists including Hiram To, Kacey Wong and Ho Siu Kee from Hong Kong and Yin Xiu Zhen, Liu Ye and Zhu Wei from China.  The exhibition will run for one week until 23 March 2011.

About the Artist
Bertrand studied Applied Arts at Ecole Boulle (1988 - 1991, Paris), Graphic Design at Ecole Duperré (Paris) and Photography at the Ecole Nationale de la Photographie (1993, Arles).  He began his career assisting Magnum photographer Abbas and working as a photographer for the Opéra National de Paris.  After completing his National Service at the Service Photographique des Armées, Bertrand moved to Asia, establishing a successful commercial practice. His work has been exhibited in Taipei, Hong Kong, Paris, Arles and in London in the 2008 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery.  Bertrand was a finalist in the Architectural Category of the 2009 Hasselblad Masters Competition and won the Society of Publishers in Asia 2010 award for Excellence in Feature Photography. Exhibitions of Bertrand’s work include the retrospective Proxemics in 2009, selected as one of the best exhibitions of the year by the South China Morning Post, Distance Decay, Arles, 2009, Sidewards Narration, 2010, at 1a Space and most recently 30 Lx at 2P Contemporary Art Gallery this year.