Welcome to THE DANKNESS, a new cryptocast with Sickles + Artnome highlighting the artists and collectors behind some of the most beloved CryptoArt creations.

In the inaugural episode, the hosts introduce themselves and share a bit about their work, how they ended up in the scene, and open up about their hopes for the future.

The legendary Josie Bellini joins as our guest for the very first episode of THE DANKNESS! Josie is well known for her early genre defining work as a CryptoArtist including such iconic pieces as her 2018 paintings Filter and Acceptance.

Josie is also known to NFT collectors around the world as the dynamic and innovative CEO and Founder behind the wildly successful CyberBrokers - A first-of-its-kind digital art collectibles ecosystem centered around 10,001 unique and on-chain NFTs.

In this episode we chat with the dankest artist we know, our good friend Sarah Zucker! Sarah, known by many as “The Sarah Show” is a proud psychonaut, former Jeopardy champion, and exceptionally accomplished artist. Her deeply personal work “merges the gorgeous and grotesque through humor, psychedelia, mysticism, and the interplay of cutting edge + obsolete technologies.”

Matt Kane is a self-taught programmer who came to coding as a way to better actualize his artist visions through his own custom software. His work features dense multi-layered works that bring to mind complex, intricate, mesh-like, webs or networks. Matt is perhaps best known for his tremendously successful 2021 Art Blocks project “Gazers.”

We discuss Matt’s journey from “lurker” to leader in the Cryptoart movement. Matt is candid about early successes and struggles to make it as an artist and the positive opportunities cryptoart opened up for him.

Carlos Marcial is an amazing 3D artist, known for his infinitely looping masterpieces that tackle themes of governmental power and corruption. His work celebrates decentralized currency and crypto culture and it often contains reference to 20th-century art and artists.

In this episode, Carlos opens up about balancing his art career with the responsibilities of being a husband and a dad, and how crypto art has opened up doors for him that were previously closed in the traditional art world. He's also teaching himself to code and has a new generative art project in the works that's sure to make waves.

C3 is an artist who continues to push boundaries and risks it all to give a voice to the voiceless. Despite the strict anti-regime and crypto bans in Iran, C3's work has found its way into the hands of loyal collectors worldwide. The Iranian-born enigmatic artist defies danger to share his powerful message through art and NFTs. We explore his journey from a regular job to becoming a successful full-time NFT artist, and the darkness and hardships he faced along the way.

Join us as we discuss C3's discovery of NFTs, his commitment to sharing the true stories behind his art, and the high stakes he faces in Iran for producing his work.

On this episode, we are honored to speak with artist power couple and new media pioneers Jennifer and Kevin McCoy. Many of you may know Kevin as the artist behind “Quantum,” which many consider to be the first ever NFT. However, you may not know that Jennifer and Kevin have a decades long history as a pioneering artist duo in new media.

In our insightful and wide ranging conversation, we'll delve into their meeting, the evolution of their unique artistic practice, and their focus on interactive media, film, performance, and installation—a compelling exploration of personal experience entwined with cutting-edge technology.