POST BREXIT U.K. (2017) The range of materials and visual languages employed by Magda Archer encompasses the use of both subtle and bold painterly acrylic, collage, borrowings from pop culture, ‘brilliant-trashy’ leaflets, garish food packaging, commercial typefaces… Archer’s Post Brexit UK It’s Kinda Like Heaven (2017) assaults us with a pastoral scene that wouldn’t look out of place on a chocolate box. Except if you look at it for too long, the pinkest of pink trees and acid lemon fields begin to make your eyes bleed. We almost don’t need the small print qualifying the pro-Brexit sentiment to know that this is a far from comfortable land we’re heading towards. But Archer is rarely didactic. More often than not her art is work that involves, that isn’t closed off but rather invites engagement: promotes, celebrates gift giving and communication but at the same time can often shine a light on the darker corners of the human psyche. If only the nation’s psyche might be goaded into a rethink as to the U.K.’s future. Any image for where it seems headed now belongs more on a box of frogs rather than a tray of confectionary.   www.magdaarcher.com