The Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art has announced Pem Lham as the winner of the 2026 Rubin Museum Himalayan Art Prize. The Bhutanese artist accepted the honor on September 11, which includes a USD 30,000 cash prize—making it the largest international grant supporting contemporary art from the Himalayan region.

Based in Thimphu, Pem Lham has consistently explored themes of folklore, identity, and memory in her practice. Through painting, embroidery, and mixed-media assemblage, she examines the relationships between past and present, weaving iconography drawn from tradition and religion together with motifs from contemporary culture and lived experience. This is most striking in her long-term focus on Bhutanese mask dance traditions, from which she extrapolates the “Molay” figure—the noblewoman of the Pholay Molay dance performed during Tshechu festivals—and recasts her as a vehicle for confronting questions of gender, power, and selfhood. Her work has been featured in the group exhibition “She” (2026) at Pristine Contemporary Gallery, New Delhi and at the 2025 Bhutan Festival in Leuk. In 2025, Voluntary Artists Studio, Thimphu presented her debut solo exhibition, “Molay Moley”, as part of its Silver Jubilee Grant Initiative. 

In a statement, Pem Lham expressed how overjoyed she was to receive the award. “As artists, there are moments when we wonder if our stories are reaching anyone, but this prize is a reminder that our voices matter and that there are always people connecting with the work we create,” she said. She hopes the recognition inspires other Himalayan artists to continue creating.

Michelle Bennett Simorella, Rubin Museum director of global projects and collections, sees the award as a step forward for South Asian women artists, observing that it “widens the lens from which we view contemporary art.” Of Lham's practice, Simorella remarked: “[Her] career is just beginning, and I look forward to seeing what she does next.”

Harison Butler is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.