Valerie Mendoza is an image-based installation artist, writer and educator. Much of her early work used scientific language and theories as metaphors for human experience. Mendoza's practice investigates the interaction between history, memory, culture and language. Using digitally manipulated still and video imagery, 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." In 2005, 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." She completed a companion installation to Monument entitled "Our Agents" in 2014. 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 continued this work. 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 and Portugal, as well as venues throughout the United States. She lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area where she is an Associate Professor at San José State University.