Recently, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) announced that BTS leader RM (Kim Nam-joon, 김남준) will serve as guest curator for a major exhibition titled “RM x SFMOMA,” marking the museum’s first collaboration with a K pop artist and underscoring the global influence of South Korean popular culture.
RM, known for his work as a rapper and songwriter and for speaking at the United Nations, has long shown a deep commitment to the visual arts. As he prepares to curate his first museum exhibition, his evolution from musician to curator raises questions about how his collecting and perspective will shape SFMOMA’s galleries, and what new audiences the show may attract.
RM spends his days with books and art
He was named “Arts Patron of the Year” by a Korean arts commission
RM regularly shares visits to museums and galleries on his social media. Whether between studio sessions or on tour, he has posted about trips from the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and flights to attend Art Basel in Switzerland. He has met and exchanged ideas with artists such as Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara, and those posts have introduced millions of fans to the museum world. Fans have nicknamed his museum outings “Namjooning.”
For RM, art is a necessity of life, a source of creative fuel, and a spiritual refuge. He has also been active as a patron. In 2021, he donated 100,000,000 South Korean won, approximately US$77,000, to the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation to support restoration of a Joseon dynasty royal wedding robe in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2020, the Korea Arts and Culture Commission recognized him as its “Arts Patron of the Year,” a formal acknowledgment of his support and promotion of the arts.
BTS members say
RM’s home functions as a small museum
Band members have described RM’s home as resembling a small museum. That description surfaced in a BTS video titled “All Day (with Kim Na jeong)” on the group’s official YouTube channel, which gave fans a tour of RM’s living space. In addition to rows of books and paintings, RM displays artworks as interior decoration, and fans reacted with surprise at the scale and depth of his collection.
Beyond his living room, RM’s studio also contains significant works including large calligraphic paintings and pieces by Takashi Murakami and KAWS. Surrounded by art, he has said those works emit an energy that motivates him and pushes him to become a better person.
Although RM is widely known for his music, he has spoken about how his interest in art began. In a magazine interview he said, “Because of BTS, because I was a trainee, I gave up formal schooling at 17. Ten years later I encountered art and I started reading again, with real focus.”
He has posted photos of himself reading in libraries, dressed casually with a hat and face covering, quietly seated at a public table absorbed in books. Observers have been struck by the subjects he studies, including specialized books on fine arts and furniture design, such as “Korean Art 1900 to 2000” and works on modern Korean art history, prompting admiration for his intellectual curiosity.
RM has said that if he had not become a singer he would have liked to be a writer or a poet. He values language and storytelling, and his art collecting is an extension of that interest in narrative. From lingering in museum galleries to building an art-filled home, RM has made his creative inspirations beyond music visible to the public, and he continues to deepen his engagement with the art world between tours and recording sessions.
RM’s collecting taste and focus
RM’s collection spans a wide range of work and reflects depth. It includes modern and contemporary Korean masters such as Kim Whanki, Kwon Ok yeon, Park Seo bo, Yun Hyong keun, and Kim Yun shin, alongside internationally known artists including KAWS and Takashi Murakami. The holdings demonstrate his interest in both Eastern and Western practices.
He has given particular attention to emerging Korean artists. A widely shared photo of RM with artist Kim Hee su drew attention to that artist’s puppet like portraits and bold line work, which explore human nature through a melancholic aesthetic. Kim Hee su reportedly sold 121 works within two hours at the 2022 Busan art fair.
RM’s 2022 solo album “Indigo” included a cover image of him seated beneath Yun Hyong keun’s work titled “Blue,” a key example of the Korean monochrome movement known as Dansaekhwa. The album’s concept drew inspiration from that art, and RM’s public interest has helped bring lesser known artists to wider attention. His influence has moved many from passive admiration to active engagement with contemporary art.
From collector to curator
SFMOMA and RM
“RM x SFMOMA” will be RM’s first official curatorial project, and it represents a major institution acknowledging a K pop star’s professional engagement with art. SFMOMA announced the exhibition will run from October 2026 through February 2027, and it will present about 200 works drawn from RM’s personal collection.
The show will emphasize Korean modern and contemporary art, and many of the works have never been publicly exhibited. They will be shown alongside SFMOMA holdings by Western modernists such as Agnes Martin, Henri Matisse, Georgia O Keeffe, and Paul Klee, offering visitors a rare opportunity to view Korean modern art in dialogue with international contemporary works.
RM said, “We live in an era defined by borders: East and West, Korea and the United States, modern and contemporary, the personal and the universal. I do not want to prescribe how these works should be viewed. Whether out of curiosity or research, all perspectives are welcome. My only hope is that this exhibition becomes a small but solid bridge for many people.”
From a stage performer to a museum curator, RM’s work illustrates that art can cross boundaries and that creativity can connect diverse cultural spheres. When popular culture and the art world meet, the result may illuminate a more inclusive and plural cultural future.
