Artist Statement

My work begins with questions rather than answers.

For much of my life, I experienced the world through the lens of separation. Feeling different, misunderstood, or judged shaped the way I understood both myself and my place within it. Painting became the space where those assumptions could be examined rather than accepted.

Today, my practice explores the relationship between individuality and collective experience. Through repetition, accumulation, and evolving visual languages, I investigate the stories, labels, and inherited beliefs that shape our identities and our relationships with one another. I am interested in what happens when those narratives are held up to the light, and in the possibility that beneath them we share far more than we often recognize.

Each body of work approaches these questions differently. Some lean toward abstraction, others toward figuration, but all emerge from the same inquiry: how do we move beyond the identities we inherit or construct, and what becomes visible when we do?

Rather than offering conclusions, I hope the paintings create space for reflection. They invite viewers to slow down, to question familiar assumptions, and to consider the possibility that every individual is part of something larger. Not by asking us to ignore our differences, but by reminding us that they exist within a shared human experience.

Artist Bio

Lili (pronounced “Lee Lee”) Dauphinee is a Canadian contemporary painter living and painting in Belize. Her practice explores themes of identity, belonging, and shared human experience through evolving visual languages that move between abstraction and representation.

Entirely self-taught, Dauphinee's work has been collected, exhibited, and published internationally and is held in private collections throughout North America and beyond. She is represented by galleries in the United States and continues to develop new bodies of work from her studio in Belize.

Beyond her studio practice, Dauphinee is the founder of the Paint It Forward Charity Project, an initiative established in 2021 that has raised funds for a variety of charitable organizations through the donation of original artwork.

Exhibitions & Awards

2026 BDNY 2026 Group Exhibition as presented by DAC Art Consulting, New York, USA

2026 “BEHIND THE COVER” Group Exhibition presented by A Bold Collab, Fayetteville USA

2025 “Chip In” Exhibition & Auction for Placencia Humane Society hosted at Francis Ford Coppola’s Turtle Inn Resort - $10, 600 raised in collaboration with the Paint it Forward Charity Project

2024 Featured Artist at Gillian Bryce Gallery for Art Basel 2024, Miami

2024 “MAKE YOUR MARK” Group Exhibition presented by Fruit Frenzy x West Art Collective, Manchester UK

2024 “PIECES OF US” Artist-Directed Online Exhibition

2023-2024 Resident Artist Itz’ana Luxury Resort & Residences, Belize Central America

2023 Placencia International Art Festival, Belize Central America

2023 Stories To Be Told Group Exhibit presented by Women United Art Movement

2021 Recipient of Inaugural NSAS Fine Art Scholarship

2021 Founder of Paint it Forward Charity Project, Curator & Artist