At SFMOMA, K-Pop Star RM Is Curating His Own Way

RM. Photo courtesy of Hybe.

by Delia HarringtonOct 15, 2026

Share This Article

“Sometimes an outsider can bring in a new breeze. Because I’m not from the art world, I guess I’m a little free,” said global pop star RM in a short speech at the press preview for “RM x SFMOMA.” 

The exhibition, which marks the 32-year-old Korean musician’s major debut as a curator, opened earlier this month at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, its exclusive home in the U.S. The museum’s curatorial project manager América Castillo and assistant curator of painting and sculpture Hyoeun Kim worked with RM on the project. It comes eight years into RM’s journey as an art lover and collector, and between stops on his group BTS’s world tour.

The best of Artnet News in your inbox.

Sign up for our daily newsletter.

Installation view of “RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me” at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Matthew Millman.

RM called the show “a pretty long introduction of myself.” His fingerprints are all over every detail—from the hundreds of labels he wrote and re-wrote himself, to the bilingual audio tour featuring his candid thoughts on the artworks, and the small drawings and handwritten details throughout the galleries. Even the museum’s boilerplate “do not touch” messaging has been re-envisioned as a direct communication from the co-curator. Bilingual hand-scrawled notes urge “Plz take it in with your eyes and heart” and “This art is precious to me. Please do not touch.” 

In most of the eight themed rooms that make up the exhibition, the pieces are hung closer together than usual, more like what one does in a home than a museum. One of the artworks, a photo by Han Youngsoo, was even taken from his parents’ home. (He promises to give it back.)

Taking up the entirety of SFMOMA’s seventh floor, the show comprises nearly 180 pieces: 142 from RM’s collection and 36 from SFMOMA’s. The bulk of it features modern and contemporary Korean art, alongside a number of Western artists, Japanese pieces, and older Korean pieces that are “all mixed together in harmony,” RM said. 

There are some truly inspired installation choices, like the white hanging veils in the opening blue room, ruffling gently in the air conditioning behind a Roni Horn cylinder, a Jean-Michel Othoniel hanging glass sculpture, and Yves Klein‘s Éponge from the museum’s collection. A trio of Ugo Rondinone bronze fish hanging over the passageway between the rooms “Blue” to “Friendscape” feels like a treat for those who look up, and a nod to the Korean tradition of hanging a fish charm for good luck.

There’s an inspired moment when viewers realize that Blue-Umber ‘79-C6, a work by Yun Hyong-keun that’s painted on hemp, rather than linen, paper, or canvas, is actually see-through. Someone had the good sense to cut a window in the wall and mount the piece there, allowing light to pass through the open weave.

Perhaps the trickiest thing about the show is figuring out a throughline, something its famous co-curator admittedly struggles to do. He named one of the galleries “I don’t know, but I like it,” seemingly in a good-natured, shrugging-while-laughing mea culpa (you can buy a hat with the same slogan at the museum’s gift shop). On paper, “RM x SFMOMA” could be one of those frustrating exhibitions that have no real organizing principle and yet, it isn’t. It feels cohesive and thoughtful. There’s real passion and care shining through. 

At least some of the appeal might be the novelty of it all. There has been a bumper crop of exhibitions on Korean art in the West in the past 10 years, and the Hallyu Wave and BTS have at least something to do with it. And yet, it’s still a rarity to see a large Kim Whanki dot painting in the U.S. Too often, American expertise on Korean art is lacking, sometimes with unfortunate effects.

Going beyond blockbuster names and sharing the work and stories of Son Sangki’s ironic wall paintings, Choi Wook-kyung’s abstractions, and Suki Seokyeong Kang’s weavings could help push Korean art further into the mainstream in the long run, and actually impact some of the artists still living and working today.

There’s also the factor of RM’s globe-dominating celebrity. According to SFMOMA, advance ticket sales for the exhibition were six times higher than for its previous shows. The museum has seen upward of 50,000 ticket reservations and welcomed 7,500 visitors in the show’s first week.

At the preview, RM said one of the big questions that mattered to him most when putting the exhibition together was: “Does it move me really?” and “Right now in 2026, does this artist and does this work still have something to tell us?” That personal framing really comes through in galleries like “Friendscape,” centered on his love of animals and cute things. The space holds wee sculptures and a playful painting on ceramic by Chang Ucchin.

And what does the exhibition tell us? RM’s comments on the audio tour suggest he doesn’t want to be proscriptive about how people interpret the art and the exhibition as a whole. Perhaps one way to look at it is that art doesn’t have to be a distant, academic thing. Another theme is that Korea, long in the shadow of various imperial powers and global conflict, is an artistic and cultural powerhouse in its own right, with its own history, movements, and vibrant contemporary art scene. And finally, it is a celebration of the art world opening its doors to outsiders, embracing them as curators, artists, and patrons alike.

RM said he hopes that people will realize “it’s fun and joyful to come to an exhibition.” This is not a place to stand in the middle of a quiet, sterile room and gaze at a great, giant masterwork. Instead, viewers are repeatedly invited to sit down, relax, and enjoy getting lost in one work of art or another. To contemplate deep questions, but also to laugh and be playful, even to take a fun little selfie with a Nam June Paik if they want to.

“RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me” is on view at the San Francisco Museum of Art, 151 3rd St, San Francisco, California, through February 7, 2027.

Installation view of “RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me” at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Matthew Millman.

Delia Harrington ArtNet 2026.10.16