RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me is the first museum exhibition featuring artworks from the personal collection of RM of BTS.
The show brings together nearly 200 works by Korean and international artists, including some that have never been publicly exhibited in the United States. It’s a rare opportunity to see modern and contemporary Korean art in conversation with both familiar and unfamiliar works from around the world and across different time periods.
Wayne Thiebaud, Clown and Beast, 2018–2019; collection SFMOMA, gift of the Wayne Thiebaud Foundation in memory of Paul LeBaron Thiebaud (1960-2010)(© Wayne Thiebaud Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY; photo: Don Ross)
“The venture has no obvious parallel,” says The New York Times.
The new exhibition offers an intimate look at what inspires RM and why. He shares his reflections on the art in handwritten wall texts and a special, narrated audio guide. “I just hope for it to be really personal,” says RM.
Featuring works by artists including Yun Hyong-keun, Park Rehyun, and Chang Ucchin, the exhibition also traces the broader trajectory of art in Korea through ceramics, calligraphy, painting, sculpture, and more.
“You have to find your root. . . and that’s how I started to look at the Korean artists,” says RM.
Chang Ucchin, The River Scene, 1988; collection of RM(© Chang Ucchin Foundation; photo: courtesy Seoul Auction)
There is no single way into this exhibition and RM doesn’t “want to prescribe how these works should be seen; whether out of curiosity or study, all perspectives are welcome.” His only hope, he says, “is that this exhibition can be a small but sturdy bridge for many.”
“We live in an age defined by boundaries,” RM continues. “This exhibition at SFMOMA reflects those boundaries: between East and West, Korea and America, the modern and the contemporary, the personal and the universal.”
// ‘RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me’ is on view from October 3rd through February 7, 2027; 151 Third St. (SoMa), more info and tickets at sfmoma.org
Yves Klein, Éponge (SE251) (Sponge [SE 251]), 1961; collection SFMOMA, bequest of Phyllis C. Wattis( © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris; photo Katherine Du Tiel)
