FRIEZE 2025 part 5: Galerie Eli Kerr and Franz Kaka

Toby Üpson hones in on two less established galleries from across the pond   

Marlon Kroll at Frieze London, presented by Eli Kerr Gallery

I was drawn to the Canadian galleries at this year’s Frieze London, what Galerie Eli Kerr and Franz Kaka were repping in the Focus section of the fair specifically. Marlon Kroll's presentation at Galerie Eli Kerr featured two faux croc-leather briefcases, square and businessman-like in style – artworks titled After life (conference I) and After life (conference II), 2025 (I believe) – alongside a range of jazzy paintings, peachy blobs of acrylic and coloured pencil. The booth was calm, dreamily sci-fi in a way. I had to investigate. Peeping into the backlit hole on the handled face of After life (conference II), I saw a pine board theatre, totally de-peopled but glowing amber-gold, sequestered inside. Kroll’s optical paintings gained a new resonance in this light, reflecting the artworks of Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian. I don’t believe Kroll’s to be replays of those artist’s work, his paintings appear more like samples; modern mashups depicting the far off feeling of sound. 

Anne Low at Frieze London, presented by Franz Kaka
Courtesy the artist and Franz Kaka, Toronto, photo GraySC

Presenting artworks from Anne Low, Franz Kaka’s booth had a similarly dreamy tone. Working with bedroom objects, bedspreads and boxes and curtain-like forms, Low’s work is said to explore how systems of value are materially manifest. The bright yellow cloud that is Evaluation, 2025, drew me into the booth where I lingered before its silken surface. Affixed to this fabric form is a price tag-like label, imaging nine fingerprint smudges with dangly spider legs seemingly drawn on. This got me thinking about how traces of life stain domestic objects, for better or worse depending on context – ie, a coffee cup with Madonna’s lipstick stain is big bucks, one with my own is trash. Opposite Evaluation two parasol sculptures, green plaid and reddish brown, lazily rested together against the booth’s white wall. Appealing to the extremes of my absurdist taste, I spent a little too long eyeing these forms. As with much of Low’s work, close looking is rewarded. It was nice to see ‘sale’ scrawled upon one of the parasol’s handles – I didn’t ask the price.  

Toby Üpson

Frieze 

The Regent's Park

15-19 October 2025