Leonardo seems a god among ordinary mortals. But the National Gallery's new exhibition boasts portraits that remind us of the earthly realm. Focusing on work he produced in the court of Milan in the 1480s and 90s (such as Portrait of a Woman, pictured), it also includes both his versions of The Virgin Of The Rocks, side by side for the first time since their creation. This is the largest showing of his rare paintings anywhere, and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. At the National Gallery, WC2N, Wednesday until 5 February 2012 Photograph: PR
Air Pressure documents the cultural clash between the lifestyle of traditional farming and the turbulent thrills of international air travel. The show focuses on two families who defiantly continue to farm at the end of Japan's Narita Airport runway. It's been documented by Rupert Cox, Angus Carlyle and Professor Kozo Hiramatsu – all university scholars in the UK and Japan – yet as an artwork, its impact is more immersive than academic. At Whitworth Art Gallery until 12 February 2012 Photograph: PR
You have to get in close to appreciate the textured surfaces of Marshall's small canvases, where figures hover against plain backgrounds in hushed hues. In this work, White Gloves (2011), a couple are caught in a clinch; their outlines are lacy with thread, and their whited-out faces and hands peel back to reveal black. Marshall's paintings always demand that we suspend judgment and focus on the present. At Gallery Vela, W1, until 17 December 2011 Photograph: PR
It's almost 150 years since Lewis Carroll presented 12-year-old Alice Liddell with a Christmas present of the manuscript of Alice in Wonderland and, since then, his surreal tale has never been less than inspirational. This show combines Carroll's first drawings and John Tenniel's classic illustrations with Alice-inspired images by a host of fine artists from Dalí to Peter Blake and Anna Gaskell (Untitled # 8 (Wonder), 1996, pictured). At Tate Liverpool until 29 January 2012
Photograph: Courtesy of Yvon Lambert GalleryCourtesy of Yvon Lambert Gallery
An attempt at infecting Sheffield with a plague of irrepressible free creativity taking place in venues from Bank Street Arts through to the Riverside pub. Pandemic combines street theatre, music and culturally subversive discussions, as well as art on walls – most notably a rare chance in the north to see Stuart Alexander's photo-art crime-scene fictions (such as Non-Fiction, pictured). At various venues until 12 November 2012 Photograph: PR
Of all the media stunts to blur reality and fiction, Orson Welles's 1938 radio adaptation of War of the Worlds remains the benchmark. If anyone can update that event for our media-savvy age, it's Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, whose work has long probed the territory between performance and real life. Here they look back directly to Welles with Romeo Echo Delta, a sci-fi soundwork-cum-radio play. An interview with an X Factor finalist is interrupted by breaking news, listener call-ins and a parapsychologist's testimony, creating both a tale of an alien sighting and a study of a media that's obsessed with rolling news. At Kate MacGarry, E2, from Thursday until 17 December 2011 Photograph: PR
A motley band of East Enders cavort through Tom Hunter's latest photographs. Here, a samba dancer poses in a bejewelled bikini and silver gladiator sandals in a snooker hall. There, pearly kings raise a glass at a double mixed-race wedding. Hunter brings a fantastical quality to these everyday locations, which are staged and lit like Old Master paintings. The touchstone for the works is A Midsummer Night's Dream, with Hunter transferring the fairy queen and puckish sprites to modern Hackney. At Paccar Room, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, until 1 April 2012 Photograph: Tom Hunter
Appropriately titled Hiding In Full View, Alison Watt's recent paintings focus on swathes of fabrics that seem to screen unseen depths of melancholic reverie. Watt is known for monumentalising fabric in the Renaissance style, depicting the folds and flow of clothing in such a way as to externalise the turmoil of internal passion. At Ingleby Gallery until 28 January 2012 Photograph: PR
