He is best known for his immense, and almost exclusively monochrome, portraits that draw upon Chinese cultural history and Western portraiture tradition. Some of his most acclaimed portraits depict the figures of Mao Zedong, Bruce Lee and Barack Obama. Alongside and against these public figures, Pei-Ming’s portraits extend to those of his father as well as himself. In 2003, he gained international recognition at the Venice Biennale. Six years later, his work was acquired by the Louvre where he exhibited a collection of portraits that sought to convey his personal perspective on Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.