BTS leader RM has opened his first museum exhibition drawn from his personal art collection, giving visitors to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art a closer look at the artists, ideas and visual traditions that have shaped his life away from recording studios and concert stages.
RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me opened to the public October 3 and runs through February 7, 2027, across the museum’s seventh floor. SFMOMA currently describes the presentation as nearly 180 works in total, with nearly 150 drawn from RM’s own collection and the remainder coming from the museum’s holdings.
That distinction is important. The exhibition is not simply a display of art owned by the BTS star. Instead, RM’s collection is placed in conversation with works already held by SFMOMA, creating connections between Korean modern and contemporary art and artists working across other cultures and periods.
RM Co-Curates His First Museum Exhibition
RM co-curated Between You and Me with SFMOMA curators América Castillo and Hyoeun Kim. The exhibition represents his first partnership with a museum in a curatorial role.
Artists represented from RM’s collection include major figures in Korean modern and contemporary art such as Chang Ucchin, Park Rehyun, To Sangbong, Kwon Okyon, Kim Yun Shin and Yun Hyong-keun. SFMOMA contributes works by artists including Donald Judd, Kim Whanki, Yves Klein, Agnes Martin, Henri Matisse, Georgia O’Keeffe, Nam June Paik and Mark Rothko.
The exhibition groups the works around ideas including nature, memory, everyday life and human existence rather than presenting RM’s holdings as a chronological inventory. SFMOMA says his collection developed from museum visits made while touring with BTS and reflects personal responses to art more than market trends or academic categories.
RM’s involvement also extends beyond selecting objects. He recorded an exhibition audio guide in English and Korean, wrote bilingual wall texts and labels, and curated music to accompany visitors through the galleries. Guests can access the audio guide using their own listening devices.
Korean and International Artists Meet Across the Galleries
Several pairings make the exhibition’s cross-cultural approach especially clear.
Works by Korean painter To Sangbong and Italian artist Giorgio Morandi appear together through their shared focus on still life and ordinary domestic objects. Elsewhere, Yoo Youngkuk’s abstract landscape work is paired with a painting by American artist Milton Avery, allowing visitors to compare the two artists’ approaches to color, landscape and simplified form.
Kim Whanki is shown in dialogue with Yves Klein, while the exhibition also highlights the real-life artistic relationship between Yun Hyong-keun and Donald Judd. According to SFMOMA, Judd became an international advocate for Yun after the two met in 1991.
Yun, one of the artists most closely associated with RM’s collecting interests, receives a dedicated gallery featuring 16 works. The concentration allows visitors to encounter a substantial body of his restrained, meditative paintings rather than a single representative piece.
The resulting exhibition offers a look at RM’s preferences while also placing Korean artists within broader international conversations. SFMOMA describes the show as one of the most expansive presentations of Korean modern art staged in the United States.
RM’s Art Support Extends Beyond His SFMOMA Collection
The San Francisco opening follows another development in RM’s relationship with museums.
The National Museum of Korea announced September 30 that RM had donated 100 million won through the Friends of National Museum of Korea foundation. The donation, made the previous day, will be used to acquire objects for the museum’s collection.
RM had been appointed the National Museum of Korea’s first global ambassador in June. His donation there is separate from Between You and Me: one supports a public institution in acquiring works, while the SFMOMA project involves lending pieces from his private collection and participating directly in their curatorial presentation.
Together, the two efforts illustrate different sides of his increasingly public engagement with visual art — supporting institutional collections in Korea while sharing his own holdings with audiences in the United States.
What Visitors Should Know About ‘RM x SFMOMA’ Tickets
RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me requires a separate timed exhibition ticket in addition to museum admission. SFMOMA currently charges a $10 exhibition surcharge on weekdays and $12 on weekends and holidays. Members and visitors ages 18 and younger can attend the exhibition without the surcharge, although everyone must still reserve a timed slot.
The museum requires advance online booking and says general admission alone does not provide access to the exhibition. Tickets are nontransferable and nonrefundable, and visitors cannot re-enter the exhibition after leaving.
A dedicated exhibition store is located on Floor 7 and also requires a timed exhibition ticket. RM merchandise is additionally available through SFMOMA’s main Floor 1 store.
With the exhibition now open, visitors can experience RM’s collecting interests through more than the artworks themselves. His written commentary, bilingual narration and music selections turn Between You and Me into a broader presentation of how he approaches looking at art — while leaving room for audiences to build interpretations of their own.