Five best London shows

Maria Lassnig Serpentine Gallery

Introducing the veteran Austrian artist, whose recent menacing, sexy paintings look like the work of a 30-year-old. To 8 Jun

Tal R + Claire Barclay Camden Arts Centre

A painter who mixes strict method (seven set colours) with wild mark-making; and a sculptor who makes free-association constructions. To 29 Jun

Certain Trees: the Constructed Book, Poem and Object, 1964-2008 V&A

Inventions in word, image and paper: a key survey of this neglected art form, notable for its laconic wit and poetry. To 17 Aug

Ryan Gander South London Gallery

The deadpan young British conceptual artist: objects that play with alphabets, accidents and alternative histories. To 22 Jun

The Camden Town Group Tate Britain

A very fine Walter Sickert show lies scattered within this gathering of underwhelming British Post-Impressionists. To 5 May

...and around the country

Ancient Landscapes, Pastoral Visions Southampton City Art Gallery

Barrows, henges, hill figures... The bosom of the countryside, from Samuel Palmer through Paul Nash to the 1970s Ruralists. To 22 Jun

Art in the Age of Steam Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

A terrific anthology show: the train in pictures, with Monet, Van Gogh, De Chirico, Hopper, and Manet's masterpiece, The Railway. To 10 Aug

Frank Auerbach Abbot Hall, Kendal

Frank Auerbach without paint: human heads and bodies materialising in dense tangles and expansive loops of wiry, spidery lines. To 21 Jun

Ansel Adams Modern Art, Oxford

The master of black-and-white landscape photography: grand American terrains transfigured into semi-abstract formations. To 1 Jun

Beyond Measure Kettle's Yard, Cambridge

Science and art intersect in geometry: instruments, models and diagrams mingle with works by Richard Deacon, David Nash and others. To 1 Jun

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