Image: Portrait of RM; courtesy HYBE. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art will present ‘RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me,’ the first museum exhibition devoted to artworks from the personal collection of RM, the BTS member also known as Kim Namjoon. The exhibition will bring together 200 works from RM’s collection and SFMOMA’s holdings from October 3, 2026, through February 7, 2027, on the museum’s seventh floor.
Organized by SFMOMA, the exhibition is curated by RM with América Castillo, SFMOMA’s curatorial project manager, and Hyoeun Kim, assistant curator of painting and sculpture. It will place modern and contemporary Korean art alongside works from the museum’s international collection, with many of the Korean works having never previously been exhibited publicly in the United States.
Artists represented in RM’s collection include Yun Hyong-keun, Park Rehyun, Kwon Okyon, Kim Yun Shin, To Sangbong, Chang Ucchin, Han Youngsoo, Wonwoo Lee and Yoo Youngkuk. Their works will be shown in relation to pieces from SFMOMA’s holdings by Kim Whanki, Mark Rothko, Agnes Martin, Henri Matisse, Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Klee and Yves Klein. The museum’s preview list includes Klein’s ‘Éponge (SE251) (Sponge [SE 251])’ (1961), Rothko’s ‘No. 14, 1960’ (1960) and Kim Whanki’s ‘26-I-70 #141’ (1970).
The exhibition reflects RM’s stated interest in connections between Korean and Western art, and between modern and contemporary practices. In a statement on the SFMOMA exhibition page, he described the presentation as addressing “boundaries” between East and West, Korea and America, the modern and the contemporary, and the personal and the universal. He added that he did not want to prescribe how the works should be seen, but hoped the exhibition could be “a small but sturdy bridge for many.”
Yun Hyong-keun occupies a particularly important place in the account of RM’s collecting. The museum’s exhibition material identifies Yun as a leading figure in the Korean Dansaekhwa movement, known for restrained paintings made with deep umber and ultramarine pigments. Works including ‘Untitled’ (1973), ‘Umber-Blue’ (1978) and ‘Blue-Umber ’79-C6’ (1979) are listed as part of RM’s collection. The exhibition material also notes Yun’s connection to Donald Judd, who invited him to exhibit in New York and Marfa, Texas, during the 1990s.
The museum says the presentation will include interpretive elements shaped by RM’s personal perspective, including wall texts in his handwriting and an audio guide narrated by him. Public admission will require timed tickets booked in advance. General admission to the exhibition is subject to a surcharge of $10 on weekdays and $12 on weekends and holidays, while SFMOMA members enter free. Member previews are scheduled for October 1–3, and the exhibition will remain on view at the museum’s 151 Third Street building in San Francisco until February 7, 2027.
