Alessandro Malerba, also known as “DERIVA”, was born in Verona in 1982. After graduating from a scientific high school, he attended the Cignaroli Academy in Verona and the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, earning a diploma in Product Design. During his academic years, he participated in the Erasmus programme at the London College of Communication, where he attended a Surface Design course. This experience proved fundamental, as it definitively introduced him to artistic practice and his first experiments with painting. After completing his studies, he began working as a designer while simultaneously pursuing his own artistic research. He lives and works in Verona, Italy. Art is investigation, research, experimentation: analysing society, exploring human beings and nature, studying their dynamics, behaviours, and connections. The theme is fundamental: an initial reflection that, through research and experimentation, evolves and ultimately takes shape. The alias “DERIVA” was conceived out of the need to find a distinctive signature that would embody his philosophy of thought. DERIVA reflects the concept of movement: a slow but inexorable movement towards the unknown, the undefined; a movement of surrender, of drifting away, without awareness, without resistance.