1Penemy aka celebrity dentist Dr Nicholas Toscano on the road to becoming Must-Have street artist globally

Why Mugshots of famous models as the centerpiece of your street art?

NT: There is a lot to this question. 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.

Why did you keep your art such a secret for so long considering your Surgical Instagram profile @drtoscanodds has 170,000 followers.

NT: Well Art is balanced with science in my office with countless client-tailored artistic smile reconstructions, makeovers, and recreations. Art is a passion of mine that obviously makes sense from my surgical recreation of a patient's smile to my street art, being artistic is in my blood. However 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.

We understand that you do a lot of charity work with your art, tell us about it?

NT: Yes but mostly at charity auctions to benefits causes such as children’s hospitals and save arts programs in NYC. Currently any sale of my art a portion of his profit will be donated to organizations that assist in diminishing women's struggles such as Model Alliance and the Me Too Movement. 

You are fast becoming a artist that art collectors want in their personal collections, tell us about it?

NT: I currently have over 30 active commissions and 50 more requests. 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.

For more information check his art Instagram @1penemy or his doctor page @drtoscanodds. www.manhattanperiodontist.com

Disclaimer: The views, suggestions and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Forbes India journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.