Lifestyle

The Art Industry’s Next Big Street and Graffiti Artist Star, Dr. Nicholas Toscano On his Dual Career Path

Published

6 years ago

May 4, 2020

Dr. Nicholas Toscano, a former decorated US Naval Dental officer and current NYC celebrity dental surgeon is no stranger to the spotlight. Dr. Toscano is currently the official dentist for roughly 25 modeling agencies in NYC and LA which include Lions, Wilhelmina, One Model Management, Marilyn, Storm, Major models, Heroes, Fusion, and others. 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, Josephine Skriver. High fashion models Andreja Pejic, Vittoria Ceretti, Bambi Northwood Blyth, Greta Varlese, and other stars like Real Housewives of NYC, Sonja Morgan and Countess Luann de Lesseps. What was shocking to learn that Dr. Nicholas Toscano is also the famous street graffiti artist known as 1Penemy.

Q: How does a famous dentist and surgeon like yourself become a street graffiti artists?

A: 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 friend. Through their influence I developed a natural passion for the arts and decided to give it a go.

Q: How did you come up with the name 1penemy?

A: 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.

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

A: 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.

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

A: 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.

Q: Have you sold you art?

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

Q: How has covid 19 and the stay at home order impacted your street art and art career?

A: It hasn’t. It actually has allowed me to step away from my busy dental practice and focus 100 percent on my art. I have enhanced my canvas work, which is mixed media and I love the use of acrylic paint. In 47 days of my lock down in New York City I have completed over 24 mixed media canvases for clients.

Lifestyle

Wanda Knight on Blending Culture, Style, and Leadership Through Travel

Published

15 hours ago

December 24, 2025

Michelle Langton

The best lessons in leadership do not always come from a classroom or a boardroom. Sometimes they come from a crowded market in a foreign city, a train ride through unfamiliar landscapes, or a quiet conversation with someone whose life looks very different from your own.

Wanda Knight has built her career in enterprise sales and leadership for more than three decades, working with some of the world’s largest companies and guiding teams through constant change. But ask her what shaped her most, and she will point not just to her professional milestones but to the way travel has expanded her perspective. With 38 countries visited and more on the horizon, her worldview has been formed as much by her passport as by her resume.

Travel entered her life early. Her parents valued exploration, and before she began college, she had already lived in Italy. That experience, stepping into a different culture at such a young age, left a lasting impression. It showed her that the world was much bigger than the environment she grew up in and that adaptability was not just useful, it was necessary. Those early lessons of curiosity and openness would later shape the way she led in business.

Sales, at its core, is about connection. Numbers matter, but relationships determine long-term success. Wanda’s time abroad taught her how to connect across differences. Navigating unfamiliar places and adjusting to environments that operated on different expectations gave her the patience and awareness to understand people first, and business second. That approach carried over into leadership, where she built a reputation for giving her teams the space to take ownership while standing firmly behind them when it mattered most.

The link between travel and leadership becomes even clearer in moments of challenge. Unfamiliar settings require flexibility, quick decision-making, and the ability to stay calm under pressure. The same skills are critical in enterprise sales, where strategies shift quickly and no deal is ever guaranteed. Knight learned that success comes from being willing to step into the unknown, whether that means exploring a new country or taking on a leadership role she had not originally planned to pursue.

Her travels have also influenced her eye for style and her creative pursuits. Fashion, for Wanda, is more than clothing; it is a reflection of culture, history, and identity. Experiencing how different communities express themselves, from the craftsmanship of Italian textiles to the energy of street style in cities around the world, has deepened her appreciation for aesthetics as a form of storytelling. Rather than keeping her professional and personal worlds separate, she has learned to blend them, carrying the discipline and strategy of her sales career into her creative interests and vice versa.

None of this has been about starting over. It has been about adding layers, expanding her perspective without erasing the experiences that came before. Wanda’s story is not one of leaving a career behind but of integrating all the parts of who she is: a leader shaped by high-stakes business, a traveler shaped by global culture, and a creative voice learning to merge both worlds.

What stands out most is how she continues to approach both leadership and life with the same curiosity that first took her beyond her comfort zone. Each new country is an opportunity to learn, just as each new role has been a chance to grow. For those looking at her path, the lesson is clear: leadership is not about staying in one lane; it is about collecting experiences that teach you how to see, how to adapt, and how to connect.

As she looks to the future, Wanda Knight’s compass still points outward. She will keep adding stamps to her passport, finding inspiration in new cultures, and carrying those insights back into the rooms where strategy is shaped and decisions are made. Her legacy will not be measured only by deals closed or positions held but by the perspective she brought, and the way she showed that leading with a global view can change the story for everyone around you.