"Home of the Finest Philippine Contemporary Art"

The Exhibition Center for Contemporary Art, or ECCA for short, was the dream of three ardent lovers of art: the art collector Cesar Duque, the art dealer Mario Alcantara, and Manuel Duldulao, author of fifteen books on Philippine art. It did not take long for ECCA to be born. Mr. Duque had a building at Valle Verde I, in Pasig City, called the Chateau Verde Business Center, and assigned the ground floor for the main gallery and first floor for a stockroom. Mr. Alcantara knew the market quite well having been involved in it for thirty years. Many Duldulao has not only written on art extensively but knew the artists and several collectors as well. In fact it may be said that Duldulao jump-started the professional careers of leading Filipino artists such as Manuel D. Baldemor, Prudencio Lamarroza, Edwin Wilwyco, Edsel Moscoso, Ephraim Samson, Carlo Magno, and several others.

ECCA opened to the public in May 2006. All three founders had only one person in mind to run it: Marila A. Burgos, who has been an art dealer since 1980, first with the Greenhills Art Center and later on her own.

ECCA is the largest gallery in the Philippines. The main gallery measures more than 300 square meters and the stockroom is just as large. As such, many events, other than those related to art, are held in its venue. Artists celebrate their birthdays at ECCA. Nude sessions are held regularly. Masses are occasionally held here, awarding ceremonies, too. An artists’ chess tournament was held in 2007, and clamor for its repetition has been going on for some time.

For three years now, ECCA has sponsored an annual competition in abstract art organized by the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP). ECCA provides all the necessary financial requirements to run the contest and awards cash prizes to ten winners. The three contests have brought i9n more than thousand artworks, of which 250 have been chosen to illustrate Duldulao’s forthcoming book, “Contemporary Philippine Abstract Art,” scheduled for release 2009.

This is the cutting edge ECCA has over other art galleries all over the Philippines—-its tie-up with Unang Letra Publishing Company. Unang Letra has published, since 2007, the highly-successful “A Century of Legislature,” and three best-selling art books, namely “The Art Collector’s Guidebook,” “The Lives and Loves of Artists and Models,” “Philippine Art Now.” Launched in July 2008, “Philippine Art Now” is now being readied for its revised edition. Also in preparation for publication is “Contemporary Philippine Abstract Art,” to be followed by other volumes, already in the works.

The tie-up with Unang Letra provides ECCA a rich supply of what the trade calls “book pieces.” These are paintings and sculptures which appear in the books, and which are subsequently acquired by ECCA. These pieces are offered to our growing clientele at reasonable prices, and also led to arrangements with other art galleries who wish to handle them. We have mounted exhibitions for Heritage Art Center, SM Art Center, and Artina at A. Venue Street, Makati.

Other than the “book pieces” ECCA continues to acquire, on outright purchase, the works of various artists, including young emerging artists like Jojo Florendo, Adler Llagas. But we also have on stock the works of old masters, from Juan Luna to Amorsolo, from Teodoro Buenaventura to Jorge Pineda, from Malang to Zalameda, from Alcuaz to Angel Cacnio, from Ramon Orlina to Ton Raymundo. Name any artist whose work you may aspire to own, and we get it for you.

Office Address:

Atis Cor. Kaimito St. Valley Verde I Pasig City

Contact Numbers:

(02) 672-3103 / (02) 346 - 7140 / 0922-8299731

Email Address:

eccagallery@yahoo.com

look for Ms. Mariel B. Paragas

Ebay account:

myworld.ebay.ph/ecca_gallery