A companion exhibition to the Museum’s recently opened contemporary art show Private Universes, Private Universes: Media Works features six media works selected from the collections of both the DMA and its patrons that represent an important chapter in the recent history of art, that of the moving image becoming a powerful and accepted form of contemporary artistic expression. On view on the first level alongside Private Universes, Private Universes: Media Works also highlights previously unexplored relationships between artworks, artists and audiences through an innovative and intimate exhibition strategy.

The six works presented here represent a particular subset of video production: single-channel projection. They invite viewers to consider a video not as a conventional commercial movie, such as one might see in a theater, or as a static work in a gallery, such as a painting or sculpture, but as a cross between the expectations we bring to the cinema and to the museum.

Organized by María de Corral, The Hoffman Family Adjunct Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the DMA, Private Universes: Media Works features works in a variety of lengths by American, Dutch and South African artists. Highlights include Doug Aitken’s Electric Earth and William Kentridge’s Felix in Exile and History of the Main Complaint. Work by Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, Nic Nicosia, and Rineke Dijkstra is also on view.

Begun in 1998, the DMA’s collection of media works now includes over 30 carefully chosen works that characterize some of the most important artists working in this ever-expanding and fascinating art form.