The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has announced a new exhibition that will be in partnership with K-Pop Star RM (BTS Fame).
The exhibition, titled “RM X SFMOMA”, will bring together 200 works from SFMOMA’s permanent collection and RM’s personal collection. RM will serve as the chief curator of the exhibition, as assistant curator Hyoeun Kim and curator project manager América Castillo as co-curator. The exhibition will be from October 2026 to February 2027 (the opening date has not been set yet).
According to the press release, SFMOMA considers the exhibition as “it’s hard to see modern Korean art talking to contemporary art from around the world”, noting that many works have never been exhibited by RM before.
“We live in an era defined by the boundaries,” RM said in a statement. “This exhibition by SFMOMA reflects these boundaries: between East and West, South Korea and the United States, modern and contemporary, personal and universal. I don’t want to prescribe how these works are viewed; all perspectives are welcomed, whether out of curiosity or learning. My only hope is that this exhibition can be a lot of small bridges.”
Korean artists who will appear in the exhibition work in various styles. Among them are historical artist Yun Hyong-Keun, an abstractist associated with the Dansaekhwa movement; Park Rehhyun, who works in symbolic and abstract modes. Chang Ucchin, with his unique modernist pressures, focuses on the scenes of everyday life. Kwon Okyon is an internationally renowned artist who died in 2011. Contemporary artists, like the reality painter, Sangbong and sculptor Kim Yun Shin, who performed at the 2024 Venice Biennale, will also appear.
Their work will be paired with Western artists from the SFMOMA series such as Mark Rothko, Agnes Martin, Henri Matisse, Georgia O’Keeffe and Paul Klee. The exhibition will also include 26-I-70 (1979), the only job Kim Whanki was an abstractist whose alternate paintings were before the Dansaekhwa movement. This work is owned by SFMOMA.
Over the past few years, RM has directed fans to art museums with his reputation. In 2021, his road trip led him to visit such as the National Art Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Menil Collection and the Rothko Chapel in Houston, and the Donnati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. His Instagram post documented his visits, resulting in a bumpy bump in the museum’s followers and interactions, as well as attendance.
He borrowed Glory to exchange works at the Seoul Museum of Art in 2022, and this exhibition became one of the museum’s most popular speeches of that year. “As one of the many art lovers, I just want to visit great exhibitions when I have the opportunity to share with people so that they can enjoy them too,” RM told RM. Artnews In 2022.
Last June, RM completed his mandatory military service and has since reappeared in the contemporary art world. He became the global ambassador for Samsung Art TV, which led him to join a group at Artworks in Basel, Switzerland in June.
“Visitors will have an unprecedented opportunity to talk to SFMOMA’s collection of books, explore RM’s beautiful and meditative collection of paintings and sculptures, invite us to make new discoveries and make new discoveries with our own artistic relationships and reflect on our own artistic relationships.”
Correction, October 3, 2025: An earlier version of this article misinterpreted the opening date of “RM X SFMOMA” in October 2025, rather than October 2026.
