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SFMOMA has opened “Between You and Me,” a museum exhibition co-curated by BTS leader RM, whose collection supplies 145 of the 190 works on view. The show focuses on Korean modern and contemporary art and runs in San Francisco through Feb. 7, 2027.
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has opened “Between You and Me,” a Korean modern and contemporary art exhibition co-curated by BTS leader RM, born Kim Namjoon. The show brings together 190 works, including 145 from RM’s collection, and is scheduled to remain on view through Feb. 7, 2027.
RM developed the exhibition over two years with SFMOMA curators América Castillo and Hyoeun Kim. The presentation is described as the first museum exhibition of his collection. It includes 45 works drawn from the museum’s holdings alongside RM’s pieces, spanning paintings, sculpture, ceramics, photography, drawings and calligraphy.
The exhibition is arranged in eight sections: “Blue Water,” “Friendscape,” “Home,” “Photo Buddha,” “People,” “Passion,” “Umber,” and “I don’t know, but I like it.” The report says many of the works are making their U.S. debut. The selection ranges from a centuries-old vase to an early Pikachu animation cel, placing Korean art in conversation with works from different periods and media.
Artists represented from RM’s collection include Kim Whan-ki, Chang Ucchin, Kim Yun Shin, Kwon Jinkyu, Kwon Okyon, Park Rehyun and To Sangbong. One section pairs a painting by Yun Hyong-keun, a Dansaekhwa artist whose work RM collects, with Mark Rothko’s “No. 14” (1980). SFMOMA works by artists including Donald Judd, Yves Klein, Agnes Martin, Henri Matisse, Georgia O’Keeffe and Nam June Paik appear among the pairings.
RM Brings His Collection Into SFMOMA
The exhibition gives a major San Francisco museum’s audience a view of Korean modern and contemporary art shaped in part by a working collector’s personal choices. RM’s 145 works form most of the show, while the museum’s 45 pieces create points of comparison across artists, histories and artistic traditions. That mix makes the exhibition both a presentation of a private collection and a museum-curated account of how the works might be seen together.
The cross-cultural pairings also address how Korean artists are introduced to audiences more familiar with Western art. The Yun Hyong-keun and Rothko comparison makes that issue explicit: RM’s wall text says he placed the works side by side because he did not want Yun left in another artist’s shadow. The exhibition’s stated focus on artists less familiar overseas gives visitors a route into Korean art history without reducing the artists to comparisons.
RM’s involvement may draw attention from BTS listeners as well as museum visitors, but the source report does not establish the exhibition’s attendance or its effect on public interest. Its confirmed significance is the scale of his participation: he co-curated the presentation, supplied most of the works and contributed handwritten section titles and audio guides in Korean and English.
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From Art Collecting to Museum Curation
The source report traces RM’s interest in collecting to a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago during BTS’ 2018 tour. It says that visit helped prompt a deeper interest in Korean art history. Since then, RM has publicly advocated for art and served as the National Museum of Korea’s first global ambassador, according to the report.
His earlier activities include a donation of more than $70,000 toward artifact acquisitions and a 2023 loan of six works by Chang Ucchin to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. The SFMOMA exhibition builds on that record by moving his collecting and advocacy into a co-curatorial role at a U.S. museum.
RM has also connected art to his music. The report says Yun Hyong-keun inspired the opening track of RM’s debut solo album, “Indigo Blue,” which it describes as thought to be the first K-pop song dedicated to a Korean painter. That characterization is not independently established in the supplied material and should be treated as the report’s description, not a verified industry-wide distinction.
““Yun is often introduced as ‘the Korean Rothko’ — a convenient shorthand for an unfamiliar name. But I didn’t want to leave Yun in anyone’s shadow. So I hung the two side by side.””
— RM, in wall text for the exhibition
Attendance and Longer-Term Impact
The supplied report does not provide attendance figures, ticket details or visitor-response data, so the exhibition’s reach and reception cannot yet be assessed. It also does not specify how many individual artists or works are included in each of the eight sections, or provide a complete checklist of the objects on view.
The report says many works are making their U.S. debut but does not identify every such work or define the scope of that description. It is also unclear whether the exhibition will travel after its SFMOMA run. No tour or extension is confirmed in the material provided.
The Exhibition Runs Through February
“Between You and Me” is scheduled to remain on view at SFMOMA through Feb. 7, 2027. Visitors can encounter RM’s collection alongside the museum’s works across the exhibition’s eight themed sections, with audio guides voiced by RM in Korean and English.
SFMOMA is also offering exhibition merchandise through its online store, including apparel, accessories, ceramics, posters, journals, notebooks and a zine available for preorder, according to the source report. Further details about attendance, visitor response or any later presentation elsewhere have not been provided.
Key Questions
What is “Between You and Me”?
It is an SFMOMA exhibition of Korean modern and contemporary art co-curated by RM and museum curators América Castillo and Hyoeun Kim. It includes 190 works from RM’s collection and the museum’s holdings.
How many works are from RM’s collection?
The exhibition includes 145 works from RM’s collection and 45 from SFMOMA’s holdings, for a total of 190 works, according to the report.
How long is the exhibition open?
SFMOMA is scheduled to present the exhibition through February 7, 2027.
Which artists are included?
Artists represented in RM’s collection include Kim Whan-ki, Chang Ucchin, Kim Yun Shin, Kwon Jinkyu, Kwon Okyon, Park Rehyun, To Sangbong and Yun Hyong-keun. The show also includes works from SFMOMA’s collection by artists such as Mark Rothko, Donald Judd, Yves Klein and Georgia O’Keeffe.
Source: rss
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