From US Navy dental surgeon, to now New York City’s emerging street artist, Dr. Nicholas Toscano is quickly becoming the artist everyone wants to have in their art galleries.
Dr. Nicholas Toscano isn’t just famous for the beautiful smiles he creates; he is fast emerging as a street artist better known as 1PENEMY.
Known for his street art and graffiti, art collectors everywhere are dying to get one of his famous model mugshots in their would be art collection.
Currently, Dr. Nicholas Toscano, is the celebrity dental surgeon to the stars and is no stranger to the spotlight, as he is also currently the official dentist for roughly 25 modeling agencies in NYC and LA which include the Lions, Wilhelmina, One, Storm, Heroes, and Fusion to name a few.
His patients include some of the most famous models in the world including Victoria’s Secret models, Candice Swanepoel, Helena Christensen, Jasmine Tookes, Romee Strijd, and Josephine Skriver.
Get to know more of 1PENEMY in this exclusive RESPECT. interview below!
RESPECT: 1PENEMY… How did you come up with that name?
“Well street art and graffiti art is not exactly legal, so I decided to come up with a name reflective of that, the name 1PENEMY stands for Number 1 public enemy.”
RESPECT: Why Mugshots of famous models as the centerpiece of your street art?
“I consider street art also in the spirit of Andy Warhol pop iconic art. His art also centered on figures he hung out with on daily basis or whom he associated with. Since the majority of my dental practice involves treating some of the worlds most famous models and model agencies, it was natural to center my art on models I grew up on or treated in my practice. In 2016, I came up with my first designs of my SOHO model Line up street art of supermodels of the 90’s I grew up on and loved, which are: Cindy Crawford, Kate Moss, and Stephanie Seymour. The mugshot is meant to symbolize women’s struggles they have occurred throughout history. I began wheatpasting my art all over NYC and started my art instagram @1penemy profile.”
RESPECT: Charity work with your art is definitely your thing, can you tell use about it?
“Currently any sale of my art – a portion of its profit will be donated to organizations that assist in diminishing women’s struggles such as Model Alliance and the Me Too Movement. I have also done charity auctions to benefits causes such as children’s hospitals and to save arts programs in NYC.”
RESPECT: Your @drtoscanodds instagram is nice at 170,000 followers, why did you keep your art such a secret for so long?
“I have a passion for art, but I wanted to keep the graffiti street art part of my life a secret as I built my art brand 1Penemy which is still growing; so I decided to keep my dental life separate from my street art until recently. I started my art in 2016 and from 2016 to 2020 people would take pictures next to my famous 1penemy SOHO model line street installations and they would tag my art instagram. As my art page grew so did the requests for people to buy my art.”
RESPECT: OK, so you’re a famous dentist and surgeon, how does one become a street graffiti artist with that background?
“Well that’s an interesting question, in addition to the famous models I treat in my office, I also take care of over 100 artists in NYC, Miami, and LA which include such famous artists as Bradley Theodore, Jeremy Penn, Layer Cake, Tripp Derrick Barnes, BY Flore, Producer BDB, Jason Ackerman, Alan Jeffery and many others. Over the years these artist where very generous with me not only giving me their art, but also inviting me out to their shows and many became my close friends. Through their influence I developed a natural passion for the arts and decided to give it a go.”
RESPECT: You are fast becoming an artist that art collectors want in their personal collections, How did this happen?
“I currently have over 30 active commissions. As a matter of fact the Covid 19 lockdown has allowed me to step away from my dentist and focus on my art and commissions. I have several galleries actively pursuing me in order to exclusively represent me. We will see what the future holds.”
Follow Dr. Nicholas Toscano on Instagram: @1penemy or his doctor page @drtoscanodds.
Photo Credit: Guess Model Jemma Baines with 1PENEMY art installation in SOHO NYC
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