Dorothea Tanning: Flower Paintings, Alison Jacques Gallery (until 1 October)
In June 1997, at the age of 86, Dorothea Tanning started what was to be her final series of 12 flower paintings, which she made over the next 12 months. Six of these fantastical, hybrid blooms that Tanning described as a “foray into imaginary botany” remained with the artist until her death in 2012. They have now been brought together at Alison Jacques Gallery, along with the preliminary pencil sketches that she considered to be her “touchstones on the way to the flower”. Fusing the botanical and the bodily, and painted in an arresting palette dominated by hot oranges, salmon pinks, chalky purples and moody blues, they pulsate with life. And channelling her earlier, more overtly surrealist work, they also lodge themselves indelibly into the subconscious.

Georgiana Houghton: Spirit Drawings, Courtauld Gallery (until 11 September)
Just a few more days to catch one of this summer’s most unexpected highlights: the bizarre and brilliant paintings of the Victorian spiritualist painter Georgiana Houghton. Her works predate Kandinsky and the pioneers of abstraction by more than half a century, as well as the abstract paintings of her fellow spiritualist Hilma af Klint. Houghton thought that her delicate overlapping skeins of gold, crimson and blue watercolour were the work of her artistic spirit guides, among them Titian, Correggio and the apostle St Luke. But whoever she believed was controlling her hand, these original and distinctive works are in a league of their own.
Made You Look: Dandyism and Black Masculinity, The Photographers’ Gallery (until 25 September)

You certainly do want to look at this parade of magnificently adorned dandies snapped on streets, in homes and in studios from London to New York, Kingston to Bangui. But although the outfits are fantastic, this exploration of the black dandy is more than an exercise in natty dressing. It also presents flamboyant sartorial style as an assertive act of defiance and rebellion. Whether it be the unknown young men posing in stylish suits, spats and boaters in turn-of-the-century Senegal; the handful of classic shots from the Malian studio of Malick Sidibé; or the creative types togged out in the vivid pattern-clashing contemporary designs of Hassan Hajjaj—dandyism is explored as a means to challenge and transcend stereotypes of black masculinity. This is an important and timely show. But I just wish that there had been more of it.

Neon: the Charged Line, Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool (until 7 January)
Roll up, roll up! While the Blackpool illuminations razzle dazzle along the seafront, the Grundy Art Gallery yet again shows its ability to punch above its weight with an ambitious show devoted to artists working with neon. These range from the coolly conceptual texts of Joseph Kosuth to the emotive handwritten language of Tracey Emin, Eddie Peake’s sexy reclining faun, and a gently throbbing neon squiggle by Prem Sahib. There is also an immersive room by 1960s neon pioneer François Morellet as well as David Batchelor’s glammed-up cement mixer, brilliantly outlined in green neon. Also, don’t miss the upstairs roomful of vintage neon designs from Blackpool’s 1930s heyday, drawn so vividly that they too shine off the walls.