An American-Cuban duo who skewer political misdeeds with absurdist antics. Their videos, created over the past decade and shown together for the first time, are all set in Vieques, a little Puerto Rican island blown up and contaminated by the US navy, who used it as a bomb-testing range until locals waged a civil disobedience campaign in 2003. At Lisson Gallery, NW1, until 14 January 2012 Photograph: PR
Throughout history, still-life painting has seen the mundane clutter of our domesticity as being full of metaphoric potential. Two of the greatest still-life painters of all time are included in this charming exhibition: Pablo Picasso is represented by Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper (1913, pictured); Giorgio Morandi (the master of the genre) by Still Life 1946. At MIMA until 24 February 2012
Photograph: Pablo Picasso
These photo artists present images of the Midlands that imbue it with retrospective grandeur. The show features portraits from Myers's Middle England series, such as Nicola and Donny Osmond (1973, pictured); his documentary photographs of nothing going on, wittily titled Boring Landscapes, and Stuart Whipps's photo-installation Why Contribute to the Spread of Ugliness? At Ikon Gallery until 5 February 2012
Photograph: John Myers
Weisz's characters in painting and sculpture, such as Untitled, Father (2011, pictured), might have wandered out of a half-remembered fairytale. Best known for her wood carvings and watercolours, here she turns her hand to the glazed ceramics favoured by Britain's arts and crafts movement. At Chapter Gallery until 4 January 2012 Photograph: PR
The fifth annual Northern Art prize exhibition further stresses that it's possible these days for UK artists of international standing to flourish outside the capital. And there's another £21,000 in prize money to share between the four shortlisted artists – Leo Fitzmaurice (The Way Things Appear, pictured), Liadin Cooke, Richard Rigg, James Hugonin – to help them with their struggle. At Leeds Art Gallery until 19 February 2012 Photograph: PR
A fascinating story of the initial culture clash and gradual mutual appreciation as 150 Royal College of Art students were evacuated from the capital to the Lake District between 1940 and 1945. The show features works by the lecturers from the time as well as student artists such as John Thistlethwaite (detail from Football Match Between the Royal Oak and Albert Faulkners Eleven (Golden Rule), Rothay Park, 26th May 1944, pictured). At the Armitt Museum until 17 March 2012 Photograph: PR
Paul Lee's low-rent assemblages see tambourines and terry towels cut up, painted and dyed in constellations that suggest both intimate encounters and modernist abstractions. His work offsets the first London showing of little-known abstract expressionist painter Kimber Smith. At Modern Art, W1, until 21 December 2011 Photograph: PR
Ryan McGinley's photographs inject the youthful slacker fantasies of style magazines with something closer to the children's book illustrations of Arthur Rackham. Both artists depict bare-skinned babes lost in magic woods and caves, though the fairytales McGinley captures take place in the American wilds and his models are somewhat older. At Alison Jacques, W1, until 22 December 2011 Photograph: PR
