Bachaco #10

Claudio Pecchio was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1927. As a sculptor, he developed a sustained practice over several decades, working across a range of materials and formats and maintaining a visible presence in the Venezuelan art scene, particularly in Caracas.

Pecchio’s sculptural output is often divided into distinct phases. He immortalized the bullfighting world during the 60’s; a theme he burnished in bronze. A representative example is Muchacho Con Vara, a patinated bronze sculpture which belongs to this tauromachian phase. Over time, however, he moved toward a very different iconography: insects, especially the ‘bachaco’ (the Venezuelan leaf-cutter ant). These small creatures became the most emblematic and widely recognised part of his work, and through them he made a subtle but distinctive contribution to Venezuelan sculpting.

His approach was characterised by a personal, intimate, and diverse visual universe rooted in everyday life. The curator Soraya Gabaldón, writing on the occasion of his 2018 retrospective, observed that Pecchio’s works in various materials and formats interact directly with viewers, producing a heightened appreciation of their surroundings and of beauty. The insects, in particular, function as a signature motif: they are not merely naturalistic studies but vehicles for a quiet, observant poetry of labour, movement, and the small-scale dramas of the natural world.

Pecchio’s work received renewed attention in November and December 2018, when the Espacio Cultural El Hatillo in Caracas presented Claudio Pecchio: Individual y Homenaje, a tribute exhibition conceived as a recognition of his artistic trajectory. The show brought together nineteen sculptures in diverse materials and formats, including three monumental works installed in the gardens for direct public interaction. He also participated in group exhibitions such as Marzo en Art 3, where his sculptures of working ants, carrying food, filled the exhibition space. Pecchio’s insect sculptures have secured him a recognisable place in contemporary Venezuelan sculpture.