Oliv Ziegler was born in 1976 in Bern, Switzerland, and grew up in the small farming village of Horriwil, district of Solothurn. A close relationship with nature has always influenced his work. As a child he worked in his father's wood and metal workshop.

He took private drawing lessons with the figurative painter Gergana Mantcheva and attended classes at the University for Visual Arts, Zürich. In 1999, Oliv Ziegler obtained a degree in Education from the Teacher Training College, Solothurn. As a volunteer, he worked with people with learning difficulties in Liverpool and learned thereby to listen carefully to non-verbal language.

In 2003, he began his full-time studies in Sculpture at The Florence Academy of Art. Daniel Graves (founder and director of The Florence Academy, Robert Bodem (director of the sculpture department) and Lotta Blokker were his most important teachers. His talent was soon recognized, and a full scholarship to the Academy enabled him to complete his 4 years of training. He was a teaching assistant during the academic year classes and in summer workshops. Due to his talent in drawing, he was accepted, as an exception, to the painting class.

Oliv Ziegler sculpts and draws humans. His preferred medium is clay, which is then cast in bronze. "My experiences in life impact on the way I see humans. I am fascinated by human feelings, and how they are visually expressed through the nuances of body language. I look for the authentic expression of nature in the individual. With the realistic representation of the human body I invite interaction between the sculpture and the viewer. My biggest challenge is to represent the physical dynamics of feeling "

His work has been published in the renowned American sculpture magazine "Sculpture Review".