Entertainment is often associated with cinema, music and performance, yet some of the most compelling stories today are being told through contemporary art. Increasingly, artists are exploring the same themes that dominate modern entertainment: identity, family, fame, intimacy and the tension between public and private life. Audiences are drawn to works that feel honest, surprising and emotionally complex, particularly at a moment when personal narratives have become a form of cultural currency. How much of our identity is genuine, and how much is performance?
This question lies at the centre of Bunny, the new exhibition by Talia Chetrit presented by the LOEWE FOUNDATION during PHotoESPAÑA at Madrid’s Museo Lázaro Galdiano. Curated by Stella Bottai, the exhibition brings together nearly three decades of work from the New York-based artist, whose photographs occupy a space between documentary observation and carefully staged theatre.
Chetrit’s work resists easy categorisation. Across her photographs, humour can exist alongside discomfort, tenderness alongside provocation. Family members appear repeatedly throughout her images, as does the artist herself. The viewer is never entirely certain where observation ends and performance begins. This ambiguity gives the work much of its power. The title Bunny captures this shifting quality. Like a character moving between different roles, the exhibition changes mood from one image to the next. Some works feel playful, others confrontational. Some invite intimacy, while others create distance. Together they form a portrait not of a single subject, but of a constantly evolving self.
Photography has always had a close relationship with performance. Long before social media transformed everyday life into a continuous visual narrative, photographers were exploring the ways people construct and present their identities. Chetrit’s work continues this conversation, examining how individuals perform versions of themselves for the camera, for their families and for society. One of the most striking aspects of Bunny is its treatment of time. Photographs taken when the artist was still a teenager appear alongside new works created decades later. Images from different periods are brought into conversation with one another, creating unexpected connections across years and experiences. Motifs reappear repeatedly: chains, bottles, bodies and family members move throughout the exhibition like recurring characters in a film.
The exhibition also reflects on motherhood, care and personal relationships. In works such as Milk on Back and Untitled (Family no. 1), motherhood appears not as a fixed role but as a condition that intersects with creativity, identity and daily life. The artist presents these experiences without sentimentality, allowing complexity and contradiction to remain visible. Chetrit’s commitment to analogue photography further strengthens the exhibition. Working consistently with film over many years creates a visual continuity that connects images made across different periods. This consistency allows the photographs to exist together within a single narrative despite the distances separating them in time.
What makes Bunny particularly relevant to contemporary entertainment culture is its exploration of self-representation. In an era dominated by cameras, social platforms and personal branding, questions surrounding authenticity have become increasingly significant. Chetrit’s photographs challenge viewers to consider how identities are constructed, performed and understood.
