Photo: Yeshi Zangpo, courtesy of the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art.
Bhutanese artist Pem Lham has won the 2026 Rubin Museum Himalayan Art Prize, an international award recognizing contemporary artists whose work connects Himalayan art with contemporary life. Lham received the $30,000 unrestricted prize on September 11 at VAST Bhutan in Thimphu, where she lives and works. The award recognizes her multidisciplinary practice, which draws from Bhutanese folklore to explore gender, identity, memory, and the experience of living between inherited traditions and the present.
Lham works primarily across painting and mixed media. By combining tenderness with humor, satire, and introspection, Lham often takes familiar cultural symbols and shifts their meaning, creating space for new ways of understanding Bhutanese identity.
Lham’s work brings Bhutanese folklore into contemporary life. Her approach does not treat tradition as something fixed in the past. Instead, Lham uses inherited stories as material for questioning the present. Her work moves between the familiar and the surreal, often using wit to approach subjects that can be difficult to discuss directly.
A central figure in her practice is Molay, a spirit girl from Bhutanese mask dance traditions. Lham reimagines Molay as a contemporary woman. Through this recurring figure, she examines womanhood and the stories that shape cultural identity.
Lham’s first solo exhibition, Molay Moley, took place in Thimphu in 2025 and was presented by VAST Bhutan, the nonprofit artist collective that she has been involved with for more than 16 years. She first became connected with VAST as a young artist and later became involved in supporting other Bhutanese youth as they developed their own creative practices.
My Modern Met recently visited VAST Gallery with MyBhutan to explore Bhutan’s contemporary art and cultural landscape. The visit offered a closer look at the creative community that has supported artists like Lham and helped create opportunities for Bhutanese artists to develop their own voices.
The Rubin Museum Himalayan Art Prize gives that conversation a larger audience. For Lham, it also provides room to keep experimenting, developing her practice, and bringing Bhutanese contemporary art into the wider global art world.
Bhutanese artist Pem Lham has won the 2026 Rubin Museum Himalayan Art Prize for her contemporary approach to Himalayan art and culture.
Pem Lham (b. 1997, Lhuentse, Bhutan; lives and works in Thimphu, Bhutan); She, untitled 9; Bhutan, 2026; Acrylic on canvas – 60.96×91.44cm. (Photo: courtesy of Yeshi Zangpo)
Pem Lham (b. 1997, Lhuentse, Bhutan; lives and works in Thimphu, Bhutan); She, untitled 5; Bhutan, 2026; Acrylic on canvas – 60.96×91.44cm. (Photo: courtesy of Yeshi Zangpo)
Pem Lham (b. 1997, Lhuentse, Bhutan; lives and works in Thimphu, Bhutan); She, untitled 4; Bhutan, 2026; Acrylic on canvas – 213×92cm. (Photo: courtesy of Yeshi Zangpo)
Pem Lham (b. 1997, Lhuentse, Bhutan; lives and works in Thimphu, Bhutan); Molay Moley, untitled 4; Bhutan, 2025; Acrylic on canvas – 120×51cm. (Photo: courtesy of karma T Dorji)
Pem Lham (b. 1997, Lhuentse, Bhutan; lives and works in Thimphu, Bhutan); Molay Moley, untitled 1; Bhutan, 2025; Acrylic on canvas – 273×183cm. (Photo: courtesy of karma T Dorji)
Based in Thimphu, Lham draws on Bhutanese folklore, including the spirit girl Molay, to explore gender and the tension between tradition and contemporary life.
Pem Lham (b. 1997, Lhuentse, Bhutan; lives and works in Thimphu, Bhutan); Molay Moley, untitled 9; Bhutan, 2025; Acrylic on canvas – 80×80cm. (Photo: courtesy of karma T Dorji)
Pem Lham (b. 1997, Lhuentse, Bhutan; lives and works in Thimphu, Bhutan); Molay Moley, untitled 7; Bhutan, 2025; Acrylic on canvas – 80×80cm. (Photo: courtesy of karma T Dorji)
Pem Lham (b. 1997, Lhuentse, Bhutan; lives and works in Thimphu, Bhutan); She, untitled 3; Bhutan, 2026; Acrylic on canvas – 273×183cm. (Photo: courtesy of Yeshi Zangpo)
Pem Lham (b. 1997, Lhuentse, Bhutan; lives and works in Thimphu, Bhutan); She, untitled 2; Bhutan, 2026; Acrylic on canvas – 273×183cm. (Photo: courtesy of Yeshi Zangpo)
Pem Lham (b. 1997, Lhuentse, Bhutan; lives and works in Thimphu, Bhutan); Molay Moley, untitled 8; Bhutan, 2025; Acrylic on canvas – 80×80cm. (Photo: courtesy of karma T Dorji)
Presented at VAST Bhutan on September 11, the international prize supports Lham’s continued research and experimentation while bringing greater attention to contemporary art from Bhutan.
Her Majesty Ashi Jetsun Pema Wangchuck, Queen of Bhutan, with Pem Lham, 2026 Rubin Museum Himalayan Art Prize recipient. (Photo: RHOM Bhutan)
Pem Lham (b. 1997, Lhuentse, Bhutan; lives and works in Thimphu, Bhutan); She, untitled 7; Bhutan, 2026; Acrylic on canvas – 273×183cm. (Photo: courtesy of Yeshi Zangpo)
Pem Lham (b. 1997, Lhuentse, Bhutan; lives and works in Thimphu, Bhutan); She, untitled 8; Bhutan, 2026; Acrylic on canvas – 273×183cm. (Photo: courtesy of Yeshi Zangpo)
Pem Lham (b. 1997, Lhuentse, Bhutan; lives and works in Thimphu, Bhutan); She, untitled 1; Bhutan, 2026; Acrylic on canvas – 60.96×91.44cm. (Photo: courtesy of Yeshi Zangpo)
Pem Lham (b. 1997, Lhuentse, Bhutan; lives and works in Thimphu, Bhutan); Molay Moley, untitled 10; Bhutan, 2025; Acrylic on canvas – 51×120cm. (Photo: courtesy of karma T Dorji)
Pem Lham (b. 1997, Lhuentse, Bhutan; lives and works in Thimphu, Bhutan); She, untitled 8; Bhutan, 2026; Acrylic on canvas – 273×183cm. (Photo: courtesy of Yeshi Zangpo)
