Adeliza McHugh helped put the whimsical, funky, and irreverent aesthetic of California’s Central Valley on the art-historical map at her legendary Candy Store Gallery. Published on what would be the 60th anniversary of the gallery’s founding, this catalogue is the most significant to-date on the Candy Store and celebrates, as McHugh liked to say, art with a “kick.”
In 1962, Adeliza McHugh opened the Candy Store Gallery in Folsom, California. The business began as a candy store, but when that closed, McHugh converted it into an art gallery. There, she featured ceramists and painters who would become nationally and even internationally significant, including Robert Arneson, Roy De Forest, David Gilhooly, Irving Marcus, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, Jack Ogden, Sandra Shannonhouse, Peter VandenBerge, and Maija Peeples-Bright. Their work, along with that of many other artists, delighted visitors to the gallery for 30 years.