NEW YORK - s4story -- Artist and climate activist Elijah McKenzie-Jackson has unveiled six oil portraits painted from life inside the Clinton Global Initiative's 20th anniversary summit. Rather than a single flattering likeness, the series treats one ballroom as a case study in how power gathers and organizes itself, from a former president to the worker clearing the water glasses. The series goes on view online on October 7, 2026.

The full series, The Ballroom Across 6th Avenue, Two Floors Up, 10:30 Sharp, began during the summit in September 2025 and was completed this year in the artist's studio. Each of the six canvases measures 36 by 40 inches.

ACCESS, BUT NO PARAMETERS. Unlike official portraiture, which is typically staged and approved by communications teams, these works carried no parameters from the subjects. McKenzie-Jackson was invited to the summit as an artist and climate activist and granted access to the room.

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"This is not about beauty. It is about the machinery of influence," said McKenzie-Jackson. "I did not paint them as they wish to be seen in a press release. I painted them as they exist within the architecture of the summit, as figures representing Capital, State, and Legacy."

ONE ROOM, SIX ROLES. Read together, the six portraits function as interlocking parts of a single system: elected authority, near-victory, capital, culture, labor, and the artist himself.

By placing the worker at the same scale as the president, the series makes the room's hierarchy visible and asks whether change is possible within the system's own logic, or whether that logic is built to absorb it.

THE WORKS. Six oil paintings, each 36 x 40 inches: The President (Bill Clinton), The Nominee (Hillary Clinton), The Billionaire (Tom Golisano), The Founder (Elaine Welteroth), The Worker ("Maria," a pseudonym; she is not a public figure), and The Artist (self-portrait).

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ABOUT THE ARTIST. Elijah McKenzie-Jackson is a Gen Z painter and climate activist who recently relocated from London to Washington, DC. His work has been exhibited at the United Nations' COP28 Youth & Culture Pavilion in Dubai and above Times Square on New Year's Eve. Named among The New York Times' "8 Global Youth Protest Leaders" and a 2024 Shorty Award winner, he is the author of the artist book BLUE (Olympia Publishers, 2025) and co-founder of the climate nonprofit WaicUp.

Artist: https://www.elijahmckenziejackson.com
Hi-res images: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oDg7RxifVNL159hQtW24y68ExtEg89mk?usp=sharing