The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is presenting the first museum exhibition featuring artworks from the personal collection of RM of BTS. RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me is the only U.S. presentation of this collection, bringing together nearly 180 works by Korean and international artists from the collections of RM and SFMOMA, including artworks in RM’s collection that have never been publicly exhibited in the U.S. The show offers a rare opportunity to see modern and contemporary Korean artworks in conversation with artists from around the world and from different time periods.
Modern art and beyond
RM’s collection focuses on modern and contemporary art but also includes items dating back as far as the 6th century. His collection features artworks by key figures of modern and contemporary Korean art, including Chang Ucchin, Kim Yun Shin, Kwon Okyon, Park Rehyun, To Sangbong, Yun Hyong-keun along with other notable contemporary artists across the globe. SFMOMA placed pieces from its permanent collection in dialogue with RM’s, showing how artists from different contexts have explored universal topics related to nature, memory, and human existence. Works from the SFMOMA collection include Donald Judd, Kim Whanki, Yves Klein, Agnes Martin, Henri Matisse, Georgia O’Keeffe, Nam June Paik, and Mark Rothko, among others.
Reflections on collecting
RM (Kim Namjoon) recorded an audio guide, both in English and Korean, specifically for this presentation. As a 31-year-old South Korean rapper, songwriter, music producer, and the leader of 21st-century pop icons BTS, RM’s audio guide discusses his art collection in personal, down-to-earth terms. Comparing art to music, he suggests that music is a frequency that lives on the air, whereas art is something singular. We have to visit art. We live with art on our walls. RM’s honest assessments are captured in sections of the exhibition, including one called “I Don’t Know Why But I Like It.”
Beginning in blue
RM discusses his love of the color blue, and that the exhibition starts with a color that for him represents the sky, the sea, sometimes our feelings, and the fact that we all come from water.
Kim Whanki, 26-I-70 (1970) is a minimalist exploration of tiny circles seemingly floating on the surface of a blue background. One work in dialogue with this painting is Yves Klein’s Éponge (SE251) (Sponge [SE 251]) (1961), a sculpture made from medium resin with pigment on sponge.
Like Whanki, who actually had a noun develop after his style called Whanki blue, Klein became known for his monochromatic explorations in this same color. RM brought his own small painting by Whanki that usually resides in his living room for this exhibition so that it could have “… this kind of communion and stories together between me and SFMOMA, the Koreans and Americans — so I really wanted to start the exhibition with this painting.”
RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me is curated by RM and co-curators America Castillo and Hyoeun Kim of SFMOMA. This exhibition offers bilingual wall texts and labels written by RM, as well as a playlist of in-gallery music, curated by RM, to accompany the artworks.
We live in an age defined by boundaries. This exhibition at SFMOMA reflects those boundaries: between East and West, Korean and America, the modern and the contemporary, the personal and the universal. I don’t want to prescribe how these works should be seen; whether out of curiosity or study, all perspectives are welcome. My only hope is that this exhibition can be a small but sturdy bridge for many.
— RM
RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me is on view through Feb. 7, 2027.
