Original prints available for pre-order now, ahead of their premiere at the London Original Print Fair, Somerset House (14–17 May 2026).
London-based artist, filmmaker and cultural activist Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian, best known for their expansive practice spanning space exploration, immersive experience design, and the founding of The International Space Orchestra at NASA, The University of the Underground, and the nationwide LGBTQA+ festival Tour de Moon, alongside their award-winning feature documentary films, has launched a body of work exploring how narrative painting and printmaking inform and shape their filmmaking process. Rooted in personal histories and diasporic imaginaries, the series draws from their family origins in Armenia and Algeria. Two new print editions , with hand-painted golden additions, will launch at the London Original Print Fair in Somerset House, 14th - 17th May via Jealous.
In the series titled RED GOLD, Ben Hayoun-Stépanian used painting and golden shimmers as a way to study and explore the myths and legends surrounding the characters of their latest feature film, Doppelgängers³. The film, since, premiered at SXSW 2024 (Vision category) prior to touring major film festivals including a UK premiere at SXSW London and has received support from the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, Sandbox Films, and BFI Doc Society with multiple award nominations. Doppelgängers³ is a queer diasporic investigation into human settlement on the Moon. Through role-play, magic, and the presence of doppelgängers, it proposes an experimental framework for imagining future diasporas beyond Earth. Blending quantum physics, queer ecofeminism, humour, and magical thinking, the film follows three doppelgängers who share family origins and backgrounds and who find themselves together in a cave, attempting to carry out a space mission that ultimately does not go to plan. While researching through paintings is key to Nelly’s process to filmmaking, these paintings and now prints have never yet been seen or shared with the public and in an exhibition context.
The artist signing two new print editions produced in the Jealous Print Studio: ‘The Magician, Algeria’ and ‘My kind of truck, Algeria’. More pictures available here
In one print, Nelly explores the true story of Napoleon III who was faced with a ‘native wizard infestation’ in the yoke of colonial oppression in Algeria in 1865, and as a result called in upon the services of Europe’s ‘greatest’ magician, Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin- known as Houdini, to deal with what was seen as ‘the wizard and witch problem’.
Across the series, other works explore themes of parallel identities and diasporic displacement through a unique collaboration with the artist’s doppelgängers in Algeria and Armenia. In the byzantine tradition of painting icons and encapsulating mystical energies into the image, Ben Hayoun- Stépanian uses paintings and drawings as connectors to new worlds they go on bringing to realities in their productions. Fascinated by the craft of the illusion and filmmaking, painting is the starting point of their thought processes and experiments. For them to start engineering and planning situations such as in NASA or in the United Nations, Ben Hayoun-Stépanian draws ‘roadmaps’ by means of paintings. While connecting to their roots and origins in Armenia and Algeria, they developed the series presented in this portfolio as a way to ‘think in action’, in the words of political theorist Hannah Arendt.
As Nelly explains:
‘An immersive experience is successful when you remember it; to me, it remains in the mind as a sequence of paintings. Painting is the beginning and middle of everything: tones and textures allow me to think in action, plan scripts, and construct surreal worlds that later become film or design productions-portraying magic, nightlife, displaced identities and doppelgängers.’
Nelly adds: ‘It is a true honour to work with the incredibly skilled and visionary team at Jealous. They collaborated with me to reproduce the tones and textures of the paintings, while also exploring new additions to achieve depth and adding a golden sheen to create the ‘presence’ I was after. Together, we experimented with developing new forms of icons- perhaps magical, perhaps something else entirely- which I absolutely loved. The process has been both hands-on and experimental, and I’m truly delighted to see this partnership come to life. I couldn’t think of a better place to launch it than the London Original Print Fair at Somerset House.’
With a background in textile design, Ben Hayoun-Stépanian developed a strong sensitivity to pigments and colour palettes during their time in Japan, working within the constraints of kimono production. They count among their mentors Japanese National Treasure Takayuki Takahashi and Academy Award-winning visual effects director Douglas Trumbull (2001: A Space Odyssey).
Notes to editors:
Priced at £195 each and limited to editions of 50, these works will be available via Jealous at the London Original Print Fair, 14th - 17th May before launching online at www.jealousgallery.com. Please direct print and ticket enquiries to info@jealousgallery.com.
For questions and interviews with Nelly:
Gold Atlas - Inge Colsen - Inge@goldatl.as - 212-203-5240
For Jealous: info@jealousgallery.com
Pictures here
Link to tickets for London Print Fair: https://jealousgallery.com/blogs/whats-on/london-original-print-fair-2026
Founded in 2008 by Dario Illari and Jacquie Ryle, Jealous is an artist led fine art print publisher and studio together with a physical gallery space located in East London’s Shoreditch. Our exhibition and publishing programme is dedicated to supporting established and emerging artists alike. We work directly with artists, as well as collaborating with other major galleries to realise their artists’ print projects in a variety of print techniques. Prints published and printed by Jealous are in numerous museum collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The British Museum and the Whitworth in Manchester. https://jealousgallery.com
