Urs Fischer The Swiss artist famous for turning celebrities and artistic masterpieces into gradually melting candles brings his latest provocations to Scotland. • The Modern Instiute, Glasgow, until 25 May
LR Vandy Vandy makes rope sculptures in her studio beside the former Royal Navy dockyard in Chatham, Kent, which evoke the history of sailing ships and enslavement. • October Gallery, London, until 25 May
Rasheed Araeen A circular floor installation of booze bottles offers a bleak parody of Richard Long’s land art. • The Showroom, London, until 4 May
Image of the week
This portrait of the African American slavery abolitionist Sarah Parker Remond was commissioned as part of the Guardian’s Cotton Capital series. It is among the works considered for this year’s Turner prize, for which Claudette Johnson has been shortlisted.
Venus and Mars can’t wait to get to it in this completely unabashed erotic painting. The affair between these two ancient pagan deities, the god of war and goddess of love, is told of by classical writers such as Ovid and Lucretius. Renaissance artists who got it from such sources often portray it as a courtly romance: in Botticelli’s version in the National Gallery, Venus reclines decorously while Mars slumbers. But Palma homes in on the physical passion. Venus is already naked and demanding a snog as Cupid helps Mars undress. This was painted in Venice where such artists as Titian and Veronese created some of the lushest nudes ever painted. If there’s any doubt such art was meant to arouse, this removes it. • National Gallery, London
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The punishment of Tityus by Michelangelo. Photograph: Gainew Gallery/Alamy 
