Graduated from secondary school - Collegium Gostomianum in Sandomierz. He studied at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow at the Faculty of Industrial Forms. In 1982, he obtained his diploma under the supervision of Professor Andrzej Pawłowski. He participated several times in poster exhibitions organised by the Association of Polish Artists, Krakow branch, of which he has been a member since 1982. In 1985, he left for Canada. He took up studies at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), where he studied filmmaking from 1986 to 1989.

In the early 1990s he founded his own company, Prospect Design, which produces film, architectural, exhibition and art projects. A short film of which Piątek was the director, production designer and producer - 'Fade to Black' - was screened at many festivals and won an award at the Ann Arbor/Michigan festival. Another film he directed and produced was the short film 'Piano Parts'. The director has been involved in many feature film productions as a set designer. In 1990 he received a creative grant from the Ontario Arts Council and in 1992 he was awarded a Millennium Foundation grant for his art project.

Richard Piatek's second area of professional activity is the design of interiors, furniture, architectural detail, exhibition stands and arranging spaces for fine art exhibitions across Canada and the United States. Clients include renowned companies from Canada and the USA. In addition to projects of a commercial nature, the artist has been repeatedly involved in the Polish community, an example of which is the design of the side altar of St Maximilian Kolbe Church in Mississauga, Ontario.

In the mid-1990s, Ryszard Piątek taught lettering, poster design, colour theory and ran a nude studio at George Brown College University in Toronto for a period of five years. He is a keen sportsman and sailor. He participates in both the summer and winter World Polonia Games. He is co-organiser of the largest Polish sailing event, the Wagner Sailing Rally, in the British Virgin Islands, commemorating Wladyslaw Wagner (the first Pole to circumnavigate the world by yacht). He was elected to the board of directors of the Polish-Canadian Sailing Club and as a delegate representing Canadian sailing clubs at the Assembly of the Polish Sailing Association.

He has never severed his ties with his hometown of Sandomierz and is planning, in 2022, to prepare a multimedia exhibition 'One Step Into The Clouds' at the District Museum in the Royal Castle, in collaboration with Toronto sculptors Ania and Wojtek Biczysko and sculptor-designer Kazimierz Klimkiewicz.