Neighbors
Daniel Arthur Mendoza
Daniel Alejandro Trejo
Organized by Justin Mata
May 15 - June 27, 2026
Et Al Gallery
2831 Mission St, San Francisco, CA
I met Daniel Mendoza and Daniel Trejo separately a few years ago. We shared informal chats and visits, connecting at openings and in the arts community. Some overlapping themes would emerge in our talks: the Sacramento area where we were born, being of Mexican-American background, how ideas of community and representation came up in our work.
We also talked a lot about cartoons. Daniel Mendoza referenced the Three Caballeros, a 1940’s animation by Disney that I also watched a lot of growing up. In the movie the Disney characters visit Latin American countries and interact with stereotyped characters, singing songs in Spanish and Portuguese ostensibly to learn about their cultures. The movie did not age well.
I found out that the Three Caballeros was the Disney studio’s contribution to the Good Neighbor policy developed by FDR: a foreign policy that emphasized cooperation and cultural exchange with the nations of the Americas during WWII. This historical note hit me hard as I thought about ICE raids, state sanctioned violence and anti-immigrant and anti-communities of color rhetoric running high, as it does today. What does it mean to be someone’s neighbor? Can we still be good neighbors with each other?
A neighbor can be a friend. 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, safety and community. 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.
