RM’s SFMOMA Exhibition: Art, Audio and Timed Tickets

BTS leader RM has brought his collection into a museum, and the interest extends beyond what a celebrity buys. On Floor 7 of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me brings nearly 150 works from his personal collection into conversation with the museum’s holdings through February 7, 2027. Colour, everyday life and memory offer routes through the art, while an English and Korean audio guide recorded by RM reveals how a musician develops his way of looking.

Start with the collections behind the works

RM co-curated the exhibition with SFMOMA’s América Castillo and Hyoeun Kim. It is more than a private collection transferred unchanged into galleries. Works by artists including Yun Hyong-keun, Chang Ucchin and Kim Yun Shin meet museum holdings by Kim Whanki, Donald Judd, Yves Klein and Mark Rothko. Reading the collection information on the labels reveals the exhibition’s organising principle: two collections formed through different histories develop new relationships within shared themes.

This approach also allows Korean art to be understood through more than nationality. Painting, sculpture, ceramics and calligraphy place modern and contemporary Korean art within a longer history. Comparisons with artists from elsewhere turn attention back to the works: how can similar colours express different experiences, and how can a small everyday scene hold someone’s memories? These questions connect a visit more productively than simply checking off famous names.

From Yun’s dark forms to Kim’s dots, blue carries different weights

Yun Hyong-keun has a dedicated gallery presenting sixteen works. In the published artwork images, upright dark-blue and brown forms create tension with unpainted space; the canvas is more than a flat block of colour. The museum relates his ultramarine and umber to heaven and earth. Newcomers to this kind of abstraction can begin with paint edges, layers and the proportion of empty space, then turn to the biography, using material traces as an entry point.

Kim Whanki’s 26-I-70 #141 (1970) and Yves Klein’s Éponge (SE251) (1961) offer another starting point for looking at blue. The former builds a surface from dense dots, while the latter attaches saturated colour to porous sponge. Repetition on a flat plane and the surface of a three-dimensional object establish different rhythms. The boat, people and animals in Chang Ucchin’s The River Scene (1988) return attention to an everyday scale, allowing abstraction and recognisable imagery to complement one another.

Book the exhibition with general admission: the surcharge is not the full price

Alongside selecting works, RM wrote gallery texts and labels, recorded the Korean and English audio guide and chose music for the galleries. Language and sound therefore form part of the exhibition. Bring your own listening device to hear how he describes the works as well as looking at them. There is no need to match every artwork to a song: a collection reflects feelings and choices accumulated over time, without requiring each piece to become a musical code.

Reserve a timed ticket online in advance and select “RM x SFMOMA + General Admission”; a general museum ticket alone does not admit visitors to this exhibition. The published surcharge is US$10 on weekdays or US$12 on weekends and holidays, added to general admission rather than representing the complete ticket price. Members and visitors aged 18 or younger have free-admission provisions but still need timed reservations. Exhibition re-entry is not allowed. The museum is at 151 Third Street and closes on Wednesdays, so check the surcharge, entry slot and closure day together when planning.