In 2018, curator Micki Meng founded a non-profit publication and research hub challenging the existing frameworks available to artists. She sought stewardship from leading art figures including Susanne Ghez, Hank Willis Thomas, Laura Owens, Franklin Sirmans, Nion McEvoy, and others who served on the Board. As a publication, the organization commissioned texts by notable writers including Nathaniel Mackey, Olivian Cha, and Rita Gonzalez. 

In 2019, Meng was offered a hand-me-down space by the artist community, and Friends Indeed was born. Our first gallery location was founded as an absurdly small experimental vitrine featuring works for sale by leading local and international contemporary artists. The gallery borders San Francisco’s historic Chinatown and downtown Financial District, beneath a Philip Johnson designed building, overlooked by the three Corporate Goddesses. 

In Fall 2021, the gallery expanded to a warehouse in Bayview. The new gallery is near the ICA San Francisco, where Meng is a founding partner.

 In 2023, Micki Meng opened a guerrilla apartment gallery and artist house at IM PEI Towers in New York City, and most recently it’s first gallery in Paris, across from the Centre Pompidou. 

Friends Indeed is founded by Micki Meng with Eric Li and Nazlı Ercan, and later became Micki Meng in 2021.
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