BTS Leader RM's Art Collection Draws Fans to SFMOMA as Hauser & Wirth Opens in Palo Alto

Fans of the K-pop group BTS have converged on San Francisco for the opening of "RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me," an exhibition built around the personal art collection of the band's leader. The show opens Saturday and runs through Feb. 7.

At a press preview on Tuesday attended by Mayor Daniel Lurie, RM (born Kim Nam-joon) said he had not given a speech in a while and had rewritten his remarks 10 times. "There aren't many things that show a person more honestly than a collection they've built over a long period of time," he said. "This exhibition is a pretty long introduction of myself, and I feel embarrassed, kind of." BTS sold out three nights at Stanford Stadium in May.

The show pairs works by Kim Chong Hak and Lee Wonchan with a Mark Rothko and a Georgia O'Keeffe from SFMOMA's own holdings, along with RM's handwritten notes on what drew him to each piece. Art-world observers who saw it described the selection as impressive and the curation as intimate. One gallery is arranged like a living room.

Hundreds of members of the BTS fan community, known as the Army, have traveled to the city, and fans sold out the first two weekends of the show. Some waited along Third Street on Tuesday to catch RM walking between the St. Regis hotel and the museum. On Thursday, fans at the base of the museum's staircase handed out stickers, keychains and photocards. One woman who flew in from Phoenix said she might change her flight to stay longer.

Merchandise has been a draw. A hat costs $45, zines $20 and an umber hoodie $155, with a limit of two per household. A museum employee said the checkout line ran more than an hour on Thursday, the first day of member previews. Elizabeth Kim drove an hour from Petaluma for the preview, where she met a woman who had flown in from Atlanta and bought an SFMOMA membership to get in. Kim plans to return monthly.

RM has since left for Bogotá, Colombia, where BTS is performing as honored guests of the city. Before leaving, he said, "San Francisco is one of the coolest cities in the world."

Elsewhere in the art world, the Swiss gallery Hauser & Wirth has opened in Palo Alto, 14 months after announcing the move. Its first show, opening Saturday, pairs works by O'Keeffe and Alexander Calder. The space has 2,600 square feet of exhibition room and a sizable bookstore, and the block will be closed for the grand opening.

The arrival has prompted mixed reactions among Bay Area artists, gallerists and collectors, in part because competitors Pace and Gagosian closed their Silicon Valley locations in 2022, citing low sales. "Hopefully they can thrive where Pace struggled," said a Silicon Valley collector who sits on the board of a major San Francisco museum. Rumors have circulated that the gallery chose Palo Alto to be near client Laurene Powell Jobs, whose Emerson Collective is about a 10-minute walk away.

Cofounder Iwan Wirth told journalists he had long wanted to open in Silicon Valley, recalling that artist George Condo said he would be excited to show paintings in "the birthplace of new technology." "Because we go where the artists want us to go," Wirth said. Asked about rumors of a Jackson Square gallery in San Francisco, he laughed and said, "I cannot confirm! No comment!"

Separately, interior designer Nicole Hollis, known for her San Francisco tech clientele, has opened her first brick-and-mortar shop at Minnesota Street Project in Dogpatch, in the space formerly occupied by Anglim/Trimble Gallery. Nicolehollis Collection carries more than 200 limited-edition objects collected over her 25 years in business, many first bought for private clients. The shop is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with prices available by inquiry.