In the fourth annual "Pin Up Show" at City Hall East, 24 area talents dress their designated spaces with drawings, paintings, photographs and installations. With only the requirement that the work be pushpinned to the wall, each artist hangs as little or as much as desired in a lively and diverse exhibit.

Among the more unusual offerings is Max Eternity's trio of panels, geometric abstractions of optically seductive circles, arcs and angles. Stan Woodard's assemblage takes craggy form as paper is molded into glacial terrain and tiny lamps splash rays of light across its contours.

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Maria Lino's subtle mixed media works pay homage to the passing of her father. 'Diary: Stopped' combines a pen-and-ink drawing made at his bedside that is held, scanned and digitally manipulated to encapsulate connection, loss and the fragile nature of memory.
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REVIEW "The Pin Up Show" No. 4 Through April 25. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, 1-5 p.m. Saturdays. Prices: $100-$2,100. City Gallery East, 675 Ponce de Leon Ave., Atlanta. 404-817-6815; www.ocaatlanta.com. Bottom line: Two dozen artists present lessons in versatility and imagination as paintings, drawings, photographs and assemblages are pushpinned to the walls in this engaging crowd-pleaser. RELATED LINKS: • Review this show • Other art exhibits • Blog: ATLarts

Corrina Sephora Mensoff also dares the sculptural route, with an array of boats and related props that make a charming (if overflowing) installation. Nancy Hunter and Jaia Robinson adeptly play with color: Hunter in drawings that brim with loosely latticed ribbons, and Robinson in vibrant, curly-patterned paintings.

Philip Carpenter's larger-than-life self-portraits are born of more somber inspiration; the artist illustrates grief and its aftermath. A diminutive painting of his mother hovers at near ceiling height, serving as a reminder of the inevitable departure of those we love.

Maria Lino also deals with parental loss, paying homage to her deceased father in works that quietly steal the show. Reading like frames of film, eight images stretch across the wall as sketches (penned in a journal at her father's bedside) are transformed into mixed media statements on memory. The artist scans, rescans and digitally manipulates her diary pages, retaining her own hands as an essential part of each composition.

In "Diary: Stopped" Lino's delicately lined portrait captures her father at the very end. Scratches, marks and poignant notations add to the beauty of the subject's hastily composed likeness. The artist's fingers cradle her father's face, and one palm fills out the contour of his forehead. Even in death, connection and continuation are evident.

Lino offsets the hospital portraits with three video stills. They show her father in health, though his features are progressively obscured by the addition of visual noise that mirrors markings in the diary drawings. The gap between life and death seems to narrow; memory, however imperfect, serves as bridge for both.