Vladimir Aleksandrovich Tsivin was born in Leningrad in 1949. He studied there with Vladimir F. Markov and Vladimir S. Vasilkovsky at the V. Muchina Higher School of Arts and Crafts, taking his diploma in the department of pottery and glassware in 1972. From 1972 to 1976 he worked in Tomsk, Siberia, as chief artist at the Bogashevo Experimental Pottery Factory, where he was concerned both with the design of patterns and forms of ceramic vessels and other ware and with control over their serial production.

In 1975 he joined the USSR Artist's Union, and from 1976 he worked in the Leningrad branch of the Russian Art Fund experimental ceramic workshops. He designed and made sculptural compositions as well as architectural ceramics for public buildings in Leningrad and other cities in the Soviet Union.

Tsivin's work has been exhibited in Russia since 1972 and internationally since 1973 - in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan and the USA.

He was a prizewinner in the Faenza International Ceramics Competitions in 1980, 1982 and 1984 and has been a member of the International Academy of Ceramics since 1983.

He lives and works in St Petersburg.