Our panel of judges for the “Bhutan In Mind: A Visionary Art Competition” comprises talented and actively engaged artists within their respective communities. Each is driven by a passion for the visual arts, their hands and eyes serving as conduits for creative expression. With dedication, they carefully sought artworks that best crafted and conveyed the student artists’ visions of Bhutan with a mindful approach.
Pem Lham earned her BFA in Visual Arts from Beaconhouse National University, where she received the UMISAA fully funded scholarship. Her artistic practice explores the intricacies of womanhood and themes deeply intertwined with feminine energy. She currently co-runs The Frog Pond Art Studio with a fellow artist, where she teaches art classes and develops her own artwork.
Wang Rana Gurung is a talented visual artist working at Thimphu Comics Studio. He designs and illustrates children’s books, comics, and graphic novels, collaborating with Bhutanese and international organizations such as WWF, Save the Children, and Art Biennale. His work has been featured in comics and graphic novels like BUMPA, Garpa, Lam Drukpa Kunley, and Bystander Anthology. He occasionally conducts art classes and workshops. Wang believes that art should do more than just adorn walls; it should convey powerful messages. His goal is to provoke viewers to think and question societal norms.
Chand Bhattarai, also known as Moxksh, is a free-spirited, experimental, and progressive art practitioner with an avant-garde approach, as well as an independent animation filmmaker based in Thimphu. A member of VAST Bhutan, he has illustrated over a dozen children’s books and animated many short stories. Chand directed the award-winning shorts Nowhere (2013) and Haste Slowly (2016), as well as Bhutan’s first 2D animated feature, Drukten – The Dragon’s Treasure. He also created the 100-episode TV mini-series Aum Yeshey Dawa for the RENEW Organization. His work spans murals, digital art, fine art, animation, and illustrations. Find him on IG @moxksh.
Yeshey Tsogyal is an artist and a designer with a degree in Digital Arts
and a minor in International Business from MH University in Pennsylvania, US. Since she graduated she worked as a part time graphic designer for Rubin Museum of Art in New York City and continued as a full time artist in her country, Bhutan. She, along with a
partner, initiated an art class project named Pada Art and still actively teaches in their home town. She also curates and oversees the operations of a recently inaugurated gallery in Thimphu known as Miri Art Gallery.