Manuel Pidal: On the Chameleonic and Other Beasts

“De lo camaleónico y otras bestias” by Manuel Pidal is presented during Art Week 2026 at PM.

Based on pictorial research, Pidal proposes chameleonism as a strategy for exploring the encounter between the crucified Christ and “Coatlicue”, the Atzec Goddess whose name in Nahuatl means “she who has a skirt of serpents.”

Seeking to move beyond gods as symbols of synthesis or assimilation, Pidal frames chameleonism as an animal lesson in which territory—with its power dynamics, eroticism, and social imbalance—dictates the camouflage required to outwit the predator.

Here, colour change functions not only as a vital aesthetic but also as a methodology of pictorial production. In the artist’s words: “In the series, chameleonism functions as an exercise in glazing, made with different black pigments, which resemble the way light bounces off and stimulates the different layers of a chameleon’s skin. The fewer particles, the more translucent the colour; the greater the number of particles, the greater the opacity.”

Far from invoking a universal force, the exhibition encourages faith in constant transformation, where multiple paradigms coexist. There is no narrative that surpasses itself as a god; rather, a complexity emerges that sometimes bleeds, sometimes bares its fangs, sometimes devours from behind, and sometimes plays at sublimating the meaning of the encounter itself.

The artist references works such as “The Swan no. 14” by Hilma Af Klint and “Nuestros dioses” by Saturnino Herrán, paintings in which forces never homogenise but remain in continuous tension, yielding and resisting simultaneously.

Curatorial support is provided by Sandra Sánchez, museographic support by Sergio de la Garza, and graphic identity by e+e.