Valerie Mendoza

Associate Professor

Valerie Mendoza is a lens-based installation artist, writer and educator. Her work mines the intersections between history, memory, media, cultural institutions, and language. Using photographs, video, audio, objects, various forms of information, and personal narrative, her work creates a cross-disciplinary dialogue between disparate sources.

Research for her video series, Consumption, took her to Spain, France and Belgium in the early 2000’s. She worked as part of an archeological team focused on Neanderthal belongings and remains in 2002 for her video/installation division. From 2005 to 2006, she worked at the border of the U.S. and Mexico shooting footage for her video/installation Different, naturally. In fall of 2010, she began a new body of work addressing the national housing crisis. As one of 8 artists in residence at Camac Centre D’Art, Marnay Art Centre, France in December, 2010, she began work on her photo-based installation Monument: 91 Images of One Vacant Property for Sale. A preliminary version of her companion installation entitled Our Agentswas completed in 2016. Over summer 2016, she spent four weeks in Portugal during a Caminho português de Santiago, taking over 2000 photographs studying perceptions of land use both similar to, and different from those in the U.S. In fall of 2017 she was one of 5 artists in residence at DE LICEIRAS 18, Porto, Portugal, where she extended her research addressing the issue of housing on an international level. A solo exhibition, O Custo de Vida(The Cost of Living) was featured in November 2018 at Galeria do Sol in Porto, Portugal.

Mendoza’s work has been exhibited in France, Ireland, Mexico, Portugal, and venues throughout the United States. Her practice is based in the San Francisco Bay Area where she is an Associate Professor at San José State University.

EMAIL:PHONE NUMBER:OFFICE LOCATION:
valerie.mendoza@sjsu.edu408 924-4691Duncan Hall 401C

Website:

http://valeriemendoza.com/

Course Offerings:

Fall 2024:
PHOT 120 – Image & Idea
PHOT 112 – Color Photography
ART 208 – Graduate Photography Critique

Spring 2024:
PHOT 40 – Beginning Photography