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Michael Dan Archer has exhibited widely in Britain including solo exhibitions at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Djanogly Gallery at The University of Nottingham. He has also exhibited and made works at sculpture symposiums in Japan, S.Korea, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Dubai and the Czech Republic.

Archer’s sculptures, while primarily invoking the massiveness and physicality of stone and its relationship to architecture and landscape, also utilise the powerful sensual qualities of light. In some pieces natural light passes through thin panes of alabaster, other sculptures have involved video projection of elemental imagery through the physical material of marble sculptures. He also works with the intense quality of neon in pieces such as in the large Triptych, granite slabs with red neon flooding through the spaces between. The architectural forms of his sculpture do not deal directly with the human figure, but with artefacts and forms, absent of, but implying, a human presence. Themes of transformation and regeneration also play an important part in the background to his sculpture.

In a recent catalogue essay, Neil Cox, Professor of Art Theory at the University of Essex, stated:

'Archer is not appealing to ancient architecture and ritual as a way of healing the wounds and alienation of modern industry, however. Rather he seems to see a continuity between ancient interventions in natural landscape and the modern urban environment. In a famous essay of 1936, Martin Heidegger tried to capture the achievement of an ancient Greek temple by thinking of it not as a work of architecture, but as an inaugural event. Standing there, the building rests on the rocky ground. This resting of the work draws up out of the rock the obscurity of the rock's bulky yet spontaneous support. Standing there, the building holds its ground against the storm raging above it and so first makes the storm itself manifest in its violence. The lustre and gleam of the stone, though itself apparently glowing only by the grace of the sun, yet first brings radiance to the light of the day, the breadth of the sky, the darkness of the night. The temple's firm towering makes visible the invisible space of air.
In the recent public commission Cardiff Obelisk, Archer has similarly used a wilfully shaped stone monolith to make both the sea and sky of Cardiff Bay appear afresh. Such works are not things like the surrounding slabs of paving stone or the ships at sea, but inaugural events which happen continuously.'

Materials he uses such as granite and cast iron have a strong physical presence; their rich surface qualities are emphasised by the fragmented nature of some works, invoking ancient or timeless architecture and the mysterious qualities this can have. These materials are of a very high quality and are extremely robust and durable; this gives Archer’s work considerable security in vulnerable public sites.

Many of Archer’s recent works have been large scale public commissions. In 2001 he completed a steel and stone gateway for the main access road from the M4 motorway into the city of Cardiff and a large work in Germany for the Oggelshausen Sculpture Fields. In 2002 he sited large public works in Chesterfield, the London Borough of Sutton and Trinity Hall, Cambridge University. During 2003 he completed a large scale work in granite and cast iron for the offices of the Government ministry DEFRA in Cambridge and a work in marble with moving light projection for Nottingham University.

Archer has a wide experience of liaising with community groups, architects, local authorities, landscape architects, structural engineers, quarries, fabricators, the public and media on these projects. He has a knowledge of funding agencies and has collaborated with public and private arts bodies on a variety of developments

Archer has particular experience in producing sensitive but robust, high quality integrated sculpture for public areas. His work responds well to the wider community and through engaging with the community the work becomes an integral part of the people’s environment and ultimately their lives

He also has considerable experience of team leading on commissions projects. This includes his work at Loughborough University School of Art and Design where he is Senior Lecturer in Sculpture. Here Archer has run a very successful programme of student commissions over the past 12 years. In these he has negotiated and managed over 65 commissions for students with clients ranging from local schools to the Nat West Bank Mortgages Centre in Bristol, East Midlands Airport, football clubs, numerous NHS Trust Hospitals, private companies and local authorities.

In current projects collaboration and installation are important elements. Archer has recently won a commission to design a tidal barrage and sluice gate with the engineers Entec for the Ouseburn as it enters the Tyne in the centre of Newcastle. He has also recently completed a light and sound installation sited on and within a land light house, the Dunston Pillar, in Lincolnshire as part of the Beacons project.