Sergey Poyarkov

Illustrator Judge – Biography

Sergey Poyarkov

Sergey Poyarkov is the buoyant, enthusiastic winner of the 1991 L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future Gold Award. He arrived in Los Angeles from his native Ukraine to receive his award, as Soviet communism fell in his homeland.

Poyarkov has since gone on to a successful artistic career as an illustrator and made a transition to fine artist, with his works displayed in museums in Russia, Europe and the United States. He has published his own books, including Balance of Contradictions, in which he conveys not only his art but his own philosophy of art, expressing pride in his roots and appreciation of his new friends in other countries.

He exemplifies much of what the L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future Contest is all about, and what Mr. Hubbard said of artists: “A culture is as rich and as capable of surviving as it has imaginative artists. The artist is looked upon to start things. The artist injects the spirit of life into a culture.”

Poyarkov has been an Illustrators of the Future judge since 2000.

“Because L. Ron Hubbard made possible my personal success and the success of, I believe, hundreds of thousands of people. It’s wonderful when somebody, who passed away a long time ago, is still inspiring people to make their life better.” —Sergey V. Poyarkov