Valerie Mendoza is a lens-based installation artist, writer, and educator. Her work and 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.

Recent work focuses on the international nature of the affordable housing crisis. Her latest public art piece, The Destination Café, is a mixed media installation that addresses the issue of affordable housing, locally, nationally, and worldwide, in the setting of a pseudo café. Visual and statistical information is offered through banners, menus and QR Codes that link to destinations. The installation pairs the local affordable housing crisis with similar challenges faced by citizens worldwide. This piece is intended to serve as a catalyst for positive change through collaboration between city leaders and ordinary citizens. We invent the future every day. With conscious choices, it is possible to guide the future collectively, rather than simply allowing it to “happen” to us as individuals. As with other recent works, The Destination Café offers a site for both active engagement and quiet contemplation, where solutions might be discussed, shared, discovered and invented.