Cover RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me
RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me
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The K-pop superstar paired up with the San Francisco museum to host a show combining pieces from RM’s personal collection with works from SFMoma’s permanent collection
As one of seven members of the global phenomenon BTS, K-pop star RM hardly needs anyone to vouch for his musical credentials. When the group reunited this year after completing their military service, their March release Swim went straight to the top of the Billboard charts. In July, they co-headlined the half-time show at the Fifa World Cup final alongside Madonna, Shakira and Justin Bieber—further proof, if any were needed, of their cultural reach.
But rapper RM has also built a serious second life as an art collector and patron. In both 2021 and 2022, he gave KRW100 million to the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation, money that went toward preserving Korean artefacts abroad and funded a catalogue of 24 rare antique Korean paintings. Between tours and studio time, he can often be found in galleries, museums and art fairs, quietly assembling a personal collection centred on modern and contemporary Korean art.
Read More: Beyond the music: fine art and literature hidden in BTS songs
Above RM visiting The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Photo: X/@BTS_twt)
RM visiting The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Photo: X/@BTS_twt)
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News of that passion eventually reached América Castillo, a curator at SFMoma, and the idea of a major collaboration. Co-curated by the K-pop star, RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me brings together 178 works—most of them from his own collection, supplemented by 36 pieces from SFMoma’s permanent collection. It stands as one of the most ambitious surveys of modern Korean art ever mounted in the US.
Working closely with the curatorial team, RM shaped eight thematic galleries following a guiding principle of emotional resonance, not market value or academic theory. He wrote the gallery texts by hand in Korean, with English translations and wall labels alongside them, giving visitors a more intimated understanding of his relationship with the works.
The show moves across centuries and continents, setting 6th-century terracotta figures and Joseon dynasty treasures beside modern Korean masterworks and works from elsewhere in Asia, as well as pieces by American and European artists. Of his selection process, RM said: “I kept returning to two questions: does this work evoke a deep, interior resonance within me? And standing here in 2026, does this artist still carry a vital message for our time?”
Several pairings throughout the galleries bring cross-cultural and trans-historical conversations into focus:
Whanki Kim “26-I-70” and “15-VII-70 #181” (1970) & Yves Klein’s “Éponge (SE251)” (1961).
Whanki Kim’s 26-I-70 and 15-VII-70 #181 (1970) hang near Yves Klein’s Éponge (SE251) (1961). All treat the colour blue as a metaphysical space—Kim’s through constellation-like fields of repeated dots that conjure longing, Klein’s by stripping away form until International Klein Blue becomes the subject itself.
To Sang-bong’s “Forsythia” (1975) & Giorgio Morandi’s “Fiori” (1949)
Above To Sangbong, Forsythia, 1975; collection of RM; © Toh Yunhee; (Photo: courtesy of Seoul Auction)
Above Giorgio Morandi’s Fiori (1949), collection of RM
To Sangbong, Forsythia, 1975; collection of RM; © Toh Yunhee; (Photo: courtesy of Seoul Auction)
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To Sang-bong’s Forsythia (1975) converses with Giorgio Morandi’s Fiori (1949), finding quiet grandeur in domestic objects, and using contemplative brushwork and careful spatial tension.
Yoo Youngkuk “(Trees)” (1981) & Milton Avery “Clear Cut Landscape” (1951)
Above Yoo Youngkuk, Work (나무) (Trees), 1981; collection RM
Above Milton Avery, Clear Cut Landscape, 1951
Yoo Youngkuk, Work (나무) (Trees), 1981; collection RM
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Yoo Youngkuk’s Work (Trees) (1981) is paired with Milton Avery’s Clear Cut Landscape (1951), both turning trees into vivid studies of abstract colour and geometry.
Kim Tschang-Yeul “Waterdrops” (1978) & Tony Feher “It Seemed a Beautiful Day” (2002).
Above Kim Tschang-yeul, Waterdrops, 2000; collection of RM; © Estate of Kim Tschang-Yeul, courtesy Gallery Hyundai
Above Tony Feher, It Seemed a Beautiful Day, 2002
Kim Tschang-yeul, Waterdrops, 2000; collection of RM; © Estate of Kim Tschang-Yeul, courtesy Gallery Hyundai
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Kim Tschang-Yeul’s painted Waterdrops (1978) meets Tony Feher’s installation It Seemed a Beautiful Day (2002). For Kim, a Korean War survivor, the fleeting drops distill impermanence and collective trauma. For Feher, suspended water-filled plastic bottles recall the clear blue sky and collapsing towers of 9/11.
Yun Hyong-keun “Burnt Umber & Ultramarine” (2001) & Donald Judd “To Susan Buckwalter” (1964),
Above Donald Judd, To Susan Buckwalter, 1964. Judd Foundation
Donald Judd, To Susan Buckwalter, 1964. Judd Foundation
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The artistic kinship between Yun Hyong-keun and Donald Judd comes through in the former’s Burnt Umber & Ultramarine (2001) and the latter’s To Susan Buckwalter (1964), both of which activate space through a radical economy of form.
Ultimately, the exhibition is an invitation—a way to share the Korean art RM loves with a global audience. “Over the past century, Korea has endured colonisation, war and dizzying acceleration,” he said during the exhibition preview. “So much was lost along the way, but out of that turmoil emerged something brilliant and extraordinary. As a young person from Korea, I wanted this exhibition to convey a perspective that feels vibrant, fresh and unmistakably distinct.”
Kiko Tse is the Arts and Culture Editor at Tatler. Before joining the publication, she spent over a decade gaining insider experience across world-renowned galleries such as David Zwirner and Pace, alongside major Chinese museums. Her editorial focus captures the full spectrum of arts and culture from Hong Kong to Greater Asia, driven by a dedicated passion for contemporary art.
