Candy Store Gallery

The Candy Store Gallery was an American art gallery that operated from 1962 to 1992 in Folsom, California, within Sacramento County. Founded by Adeliza McHugh, the gallery became a leading showcase for Funk art and Nut art in Northern California. Despite its modest proportions, the institution introduced many artists who would achieve national and international recognition, playing a critical role in promoting the whimsical, figurative, and irreverent aesthetic of the Central Valley region.

The gallery originated in October 1962 when Adeliza McHugh was prohibited by the local health department from selling her homemade almond nougat treats. Forced to close her candy business, she converted the space into a commercial art gallery to showcase regional artists she admired. Although McHugh possessed little professional art experience, her countercultural tastes guided the venue. The gallery gained wide attention from critics and collectors, highlighted by a publicized 1970 visit from actor and art collector Vincent Price. In 1981, the gallery's contributions were honored by the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento with an attendance record-breaking exhibition titled Welcome to the Candy Store. The Candy Store Gallery closed in 1992, and McHugh died in 2003 at the age of 91.

The gallery primarily exhibited works by teachers and students from California State University at Sacramento and the University of California at Davis. It focused heavily on Funk art and Nut art, movements that pushed beyond the dominant Abstract Expressionist style into fresh territory of representational and figurative work characterized by humor and irreverence. Through various group and solo exhibitions, the gallery served as a vital crossroads where Northern California Funk artists mingled with Chicago Imagists associated with the Hairy Who, fostering a unique regional and interregional artistic community that McHugh described as art with a kick.

The gallery exhibited a roster of ceramists and painters who would become highly significant. Key figures included Robert Arneson, Clayton Bailey, Roy De Forest, David Gilhooly, Irving Marcus, Maija Peeples-Bright, Peter VandenBerge, Camille VandenBerge, and William T. Wiley. The venue also hosted multiple solo exhibitions for artists such as Sandra Shannonhouse and Luis Jimenez, and provided early California exposure for Chicago artists Gladys Nilsson and Jim Nutt. Although many of these artists moved on to larger venues, most remained loyal to McHugh and continued to exhibit and sell their work through the gallery.

The gallery was located in a commercial building at 605 Sutter Street in downtown Folsom, California. Before becoming McHugh's personal residence and art gallery, the space had previously served as a library and a candy store. Despite its relatively small size, consisting of just two rooms, the intimate setting gained wide attention from critics and collectors, and became a fixture of the Sacramento art world.

The Candy Store Gallery closed its physical doors in 1992. Today, its historical records are preserved at the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution, which holds 0.2 linear feet of exhibition announcements dating from circa 1973 to circa 1982, donated by Paula Z. Kirkeby. The gallery's legacy has been explored in recent exhibitions, including Everything is Possible, Nothing is Probable at the Library Gallery of California State University, Sacramento in 2022, and a documentary film titled The Candy Store: Adeliza's House for Odd Birds by Laurence Campling. A significant catalog was also published on the sixtieth anniversary of the gallery's founding.