In dynamite news for attendance at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA), the institution is planning a sprawling exhibition featuring works from the personal collection of RM, a member of the hit K-Pop group BTS.
The show RM x SFMoMA will open a year from now, running from October 2026 to February 2027. It will feature around 200 objects drawn from both RM’s personal holdings and SFMoMA’s permanent collection, curated by the popstar himself in collaboration with the museum curators América Castillo and Hyoeun Kim.
RM will contribute works by Korean Modern and contemporary artists including the Dansaekhwa artist Yun Hyong-keun, the sculptor Kim Yun Shin and the painters Park Rehyun, To Sangbong, Kwon Okyon and Chang Ucchin, among others. These will be paired with works in SFMoMA’s collection by US and European artists including Mark Rothko, Agnes Martin, Henri Matisse, Georgia O’Keeffe and Paul Klee, as well as the Korean abstractionist Kim Whanki.
“We live in an age defined by boundaries,” RM said in a statement. “This exhibition at SFMoMA reflects those boundaries: between East and West, Korea 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—whose real name is Kim Namjoon and whose stage name is short for “Rap Monster”—is a founding member of the global K-Pop sensation BTS and its lead rapper. He also has a solo career with two albums to his name, the first of which, Indigo (2022), features a photo of RM sitting below Yun Hyong-keun’s painting Blue (1972) on its cover. He has also supported exhibitions in Korea, earning him the title of Art Sponsor of the Year from the Arts Council Korea in 2020. His 100m Korean won ($71,530) donation to the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation in 2021 was used to restore a royal hwarot robe from the Joseon Dynasty-era (1392-1910) at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
In a 2022 profile by Andrew Russeth for The New York Times, RM shared insights into his personal collection, which includes works by contemporary art stars like Takashi Murakami, Roni Horn, Ugo Rondinone and KAWS as well as historic figures in Korean art like Kwon Jin-kyu, Kim Jeong-hui, Park Soo Keun and Nam June Paik. “I feel like they’re watching me,” he said. “I’m motivated. I want to be a better person, a better adult, because there is this aura that is coming from these artworks on display.”
