Neighbors

A neighbor can be a friend or a member of your community. They can be someone who understands you, someone you share history with. Maybe they are someone you trust to feed your cat when you are out of town. A neighbor can also be a stranger. There can be walls that separate you from your neighbor, or you might close the blinds to keep out prying eyes. Neighbors is a presentation of hope and caution. It is the imagining of a joyful future of allyship and safety. It is also the histories that are tucked away behind walls and in the cracks. -Justin Mata Daniel Arthur Mendoza (b. 1989, Sacramento, California) received his MFA from UC Riverside in 2022. He received a BA in Studio Art at UC Davis, and attended the Chautauqua Institution Schools of the Fine and Performing Arts in Chautauqua, New York in 2013. His work has been exhibited most recently at Noon Projects (Los Angeles, CA), The Mistake Room (Los Angeles, CA), Human Resources Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA), Southern Exposure (San Francisco, CA), and Hawthorn Contemporary (Milwaukee, WI) among others. He was an artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Fall 2025. He is currently living and working in San Francisco, California. Daniel Alejandro Trejo (b. 1991) is a visual artist with an adjacent curatorial practice. He received his degrees in Art Studio and Art History from the University of California, Davis. Trejo’s work has been presented in a variety of contexts, including at Human Resources (Los Angeles), The Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento), Gallery 12.26 (Dallas) and Material Art Fair (Mexico City). His work and curatorial projects have been featured in Hyperallergic, Open Space for SFMOMA and Ceramics Monthly. Justin Mata is an artist and cultural worker living in San Francisco. His artworks and videos have been shown at such venues as El Museo del Barrio (NYC), NURTUREart (Brooklyn), Northwest Film Forum (Seattle) and Adobe Books Backroom Gallery (SF). He received his BFA from California College of the Arts (SF) and his MFA from the School of Visual Arts (NYC).