Alessandro Merlo: Stage Presence

Mare Karina presents a selection of photographic works by Alessandro Merlo (1995, Pietra Ligure), visual artist and photographer, editor and founder of the Coriandoli community. Now based in Milan, Merlo graduated in Fashion Photography from the London College of Fashion in 2017. His practice moves between photographic portraiture and fashion, conceiving each image as a symbolic tableau: a constructed scene, close to the imaginary of tarot, in which the subject becomes an archetypal figure within his visual universe.

In the past, he has worked with Tim Walker, Jamie Morgan, and Anna Franceschini; he has produced campaigns and editorials for brands such as Valentino; and published his images in magazines including Vogue, i-D, Dazed, Sleek, Harper’s Bazaar, Billboard, among many others.

In 2022 he founded Coriandoli, an independent magazine and collective dedicated to unconventional artistic practices around queer themes. The first issue was presented in Venice in 2022, coinciding with Alemani’s Biennale, with the desire to “carnivalize culture.” The second issue was released in 2024, with a pop-up in Milan followed by an afterparty at Plastic.
From 2022 until its closure in 2025, Merlo worked within the creative team of Plastic Club Milano, a venue recognized as a safe space and a crossroads for non-mainstream communities. In this context, he also conceived thematic window-format installations, involving artists and members of the Coriandoli community in collective interventions that transformed the space into a living tableau.

Stage Presence brings together photographs produced at different moments in Alessandro Merlo’s practice, from London portraits to editorials for Coriandoli, through to images born from masked parties in Venice. The exhibition design turns the gallery into a stage, inviting the audience to step into the scene.