As the title suggests, time is the big, loose theme running through the diverse work of Lara Kenworthy and seven other emerging artists in this engaging group show. At Five Years gallery until 28 August 2011
Photograph: Five Years gallery
Ruth Maclennan finds realms of suggestive significance in the most apparently featureless of terrains. Anarcadia is a video installation of a trip through the desert landscapes of Kazakhstan, accompanied by archival photo-documents and Soviet-era posters. At Castlefield gallery until 18 September 2011
Photograph: Ruth Maclennan/Castlefield gallery
Including such art-world jokers as Dan Witz, this show explores the use of humour in contemporary art. Want to overstep the mark that safeguards cultural sobrieties from the liberating chaos of an involuntary guffaw? Get to the Quad gallery before 28 October 2011
Photograph: Quad gallery
The US artist meticulously translates everyday views of freeways, sidewalks and parking lots into abstract drawings and paintings. The result is psychedelic and gloriously disorienting. At the Fruitmarket Gallery until 9 October 2011
Photograph: Kunstmuseum St Gallen/Rolf Ricke
A strange mood seems to descend upon people when they visit an English working-class seaside resort, but nowhere is this so marked as in Blackpool. Curated by Nina Könnemann, this show traces the 'Blackpool effect' from the 1930s through to the photo-documents of Martin Parr and Chris Steele-Perkins. At Grundy Art Gallery until 5 November 2011 Photograph: Barry Lewis/Corbis
Photos by 1980s heavyweights Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman and Jeff Wall are paired with images by recent artists, including Anne Hardy and Clare Strand, whose work (pictured) looks at the photo as document. It makes for a tantalising taster for the V&A's big postmodernism show in September. Signs of a Struggle is on until 27 November 2011
Photograph: Clare Strand/V&A
For the past six weeks, a group of artists has been in residence at the ever-adventurous Wysing, probing the history of psychedelica in all its groovy, eye-popping, mind-expanding forms. This exhibition, which features work by Mark Essen (pictured), Kate Owens and Hilary Koob-Sassen, will be at Wysing Arts Centre from Saturday to 28 August 2011
Photograph: Still form Archangel George/Mark Essen
As reading real-life books becomes as old-fashioned as making a fire, artists have been filling the gap with hand-rendered creations. Highlights of this papery show include Georgia Russell's sculptural tomes (pictured), with paper intricately slashed to resemble peacock feathers or shaggy pelts. At Spacex until 3 September 2011
Photograph: Georgia Russell/England & Co
