Artist, Entrepreneur, and Motivational Speaker
About Leena Kewlani
Artist, Entrepreneur, and Motivational Speaker
Leena Kewlani is an artist, an entrepreneur, a motivational speaker and a media veteran.
Having worked at global corporates such as Starcom MediaVest, Wavemaker & Choueiri Group, she has gained over 22 years of in-depth expertise and insight in advertising, media & content.
About this Episode
In this episode, we talk to Leena about her exciting journey from working as a media advertiser for 22 years and then taking a leap of faith to follow her passion, art. In 2019, she followed her entrepreneurial calling and left the advertising and media industry to join her business partner, Teena Thawani, and co-create Artezaar.com – one of the fastest-growing art galleries in the UAE.
With a mission to build a community of flourishing and aspiring artists offering original artworks and handicrafts and actively engaging the art ecosystem. She has also been a recent TEDx Speaker and shared her journey on how she shaped her future by practising a philosophy that kept her grounded.
If you are looking for some inspiration to follow your passion, tune in!
“At Artazar we want to empower them so they can choose art as a future if they want to or they can use art as a medium to express themselves and to grow better and to do things better and it doesn’t matter what art form they choose.”
Leena Kewlani
“I think those barriers have been broken down, where they realized talent comes from anywhere. It doesn’t matter what your background is, it doesn’t matter if you studied or didn’t study art. Talent is being recognized, I think UAE has enabled this entire art movement.”
– Leena Kewlani
Show highlights
“I’m not hesitant to ask a 5-year-old or even somebody on my team, saying, I don’t know how to do this and I think that is the proof this industry where the younger generation that comes in, they come with so much more than we had.”
Leena Kewlani“I think the biggest change came when people understood what content meant because we were creating content from 2009. Nobody knew what content meant in 2009. We were doing a web series in 2011, full-on production, nobody understood that at that time.”
Leena Kewlani
“What is my legacy? What am I leaving behind and what am I really wanting to do, what is my heart’s desire? I realized more and more, I wanted to teach kids and I wanted to sell my work. I wanted to start with selling my work, so it’s either you do your job or you sell your art. You couldn’t have it both ways.”
Leena Kewlani
Useful Links
Website: https://artezaar.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leenakewlani.art/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leenakewlaniart/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/leenakewlani
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leenakewlani/
Tedx: https://www.ted.com/talks/leena_kewlani_e_ngineering_a_better_you
