Following a degree in architecture, David Rickard went on to study art at Accademia di Brera in Milan and Central Saint Martins in London. His original studies in architecture have had a lasting impact on his art practice. Through a process-based practice his works investigate the inherent material properties of our surrounding environment and the spatial relationships between people, objects and architecture.​​
 
Constantly moving along a fine line between sculpture and performance, art and physics, Rickard’s work engages the viewer as an active player. Once the artist has established a trajectory, a combination of necessity and chance takes place, making the ordinary extraordinary and generating new readings of our surroundings.
 
Rickard’s work has been exhibited at institutions internationally including: Palazzo Fortuny, Venice (Italy); Wellcome Collection, London (UK); Hans Erni Museum, Lucerne (Switzerland); Ashburton Art Gallery (New Zealand); Royal College of Art, London (UK); GIANT Gallery, Bournemouth (UK); Pangea Sculptors Centre, Coventry (UK); S1 Artspace, Sheffield (UK); MoCA Brescia (Italy); MACRO, Rome (Italy); Kranenburgh Museum, Bergen (Netherlands); Lustwarande (Netherlands); KunstKraftWerk, Leipzig (Germany); Cloud Seven Collection, Brussels (Belgium).
 
Public commissions include: Synthesis (heavy-chain), Institute of Immunity and Transplantation, UCL London (UK, 2023); Absence Echoed, Uren Hub, Imperial College, London (UK, 2022); Signals, Damac Tower, London (UK, 2021); Beyond Sight Within Grasp (Red, Yellow and Blue), UCL Trellis, London (UK, 2019); Timelapse, Kielder Art & Architecture (UK, 2019); Yield, Fonds Belval (Luxembourg, 2016); Myriad, Snape Maltings Sculpture Collection (UK, 2016).
 
Residencies include: S+T+ARTS (EU); Ars Electronica (Austria); Trellis, UCL, London (UK); Stiftung Kunstdepot (Switzerland); Public Art Experience (Luxembourg); Pangaea Sculptors Centre (UK); LoBe Berlin (Germany).