Michael Flaherty owns thousands of markers.

Bright Sharpies, rare discontinued highlighters, and old dried-up illustration markers that don’t even work anymore—it doesn’t matter, this artist loves them all. Mixed with watercolors and oil pastels, they’re the inky heart of his pulsating, psychedelic canvases and installations.

Wild and intense, his work portrays dark, clownish characters and weird animals that were never meant to be, all agents of chaos spraying love, cruelty, and sexual abandon across the images. But beyond the absurdity are fields of sparks, endlessly complex geometries, and inscrutable, neverending cityscapes, neon interfaces between viewer and artist.

Flaherty, for his part, is insatiable, chewing into his outlandish nightmares with the appetite of a bear who has just had its first taste of salmon. The flavor is odd and exciting, and yet innately familiar, a delightful jolt to the system.