Lure of the Local: Love Letters
Group show · Mundelein Arts Commission · Mundelein, IL · October 16 – November 28, 2026
The Lure of the Local annual art exhibition was established in 2022 to highlight the creative practices of artists who live and work among us, our teachers, neighbors, and friends. Together, their works offer a multifaceted portrait of contemporary art as it emerges within our community.
This exhibition takes its name from Lucy Lippard’s seminal text The Lure of the Local, which explores the profound ways in which we construct meaning through place, memory, and identity.
This year’s theme is Love Letters. Whether it inspires a brand-new piece, helps you see existing work in a new light, or simply gets ideas flowing, we invite artists to begin exploring what Love Letters might mean through their own creative lens.
From the quiet anticipation of writing a love letter to the joy of receiving one, this simple act captures something deeply human. Few things express longing, connection, and vulnerability quite like it; art offers a powerful way to explore those emotions.
Let this theme be a springboard for your own interpretation of what Love Letters mean to you. Your subject might be a person, a pet, a garden, a season, a favorite meal, or even a fleeting moment. What you love—and how you choose to honor it—is each artist’s unique vision.
In this fast-paced age of texting, the idea of a love letter is nostalgic and tactile, present. What makes you pause in awe? What image or thing can truly embody love? Is love a fairy tale or fantasy? What artistic process do you lose yourself in like falling in love?
