Born in Tibet in 1966, Pema Rinzin grew up in Dharamsala, India where he received a degree in traditional Tibetan Thangka Painting and Fine Art from both the Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) painting school and the studio of master painter Kalsang Oshoe. 

Rinzin was the first Tibetan artist in residence at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York. His contemporary style art gained prominence after his work was exhibited in the Rubin Museum’s 2010 group exhibition Tradition Transformed. It was New York’s first museum exhibition of contemporary Tibetan artists. In 2007, Rinzin founded the New York Tibetan Art Studio (NYTAS), the only school in New York committed to teaching and preserving the classical art of Thangka painting.