Artist Richard Artschwager made his first “blp” circa 1967, when graffiti was just starting to appear in the United States. The charcoal-colored marks looked like lozenges standing upright, and they'd show up on outside walls, subway cars, shop windows or, once, the ceiling of the Whitney Museum. Iconic gallerist Leo Castelli once said the blps were the artist's “Kilroy,” referring to the cartoon of a big nose, eyes and two hands GIs drew after WWII under the slogan “Kilroy was here.” Artschwager has described the blps more abstractly as “a mindless invasion” that “relentlessly refuses to give up its uselessness.” As part of Artschwager's current Hammer Museum retrospective, blps will pop up around L.A. and Las Vegas, courtesy of the museum and nonprofit LAND. 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Wstwd., and around town; through Sept. 1. (310) 443-7000, hammer.ucla.edu.

Tuesdays-Sundays. Starts: June 15. Continues through Sept. 1, 2013

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