The Independent recommends: The five best shows

Louise Bourgeois Serpentine Gallery

Autobiographical installations from the surrealist sculptress feature a giant mother/ spider presiding over images of spinning and weaving, restoration and decay (right).

To 10 Jan

Turner Prize Tate Gallery

Hugely popular competitive bash in which four artists show their wares. Chris Ofili, Tacita Dean, Cathy de Monchaux and Sam Taylor-Wood are this year vying for the top spot. To 10 Jan

Bridget Riley Abbott Hall, Kendal

A retrospective on Riley's career from her early Sixties Op Art, moving from rippling monochromes to colour, stripes and diagonals. To 31 Jan

Edward Burne-Jones Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

The people's Pre-Raphaelite centenary exhibition gathers together many favourites such as King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid. To 17 Jan

Helen Chadwick Ferens Gallery, Hull

The first overview since this influential UK artist's death mid-career in 1996. Lush light-boxes of fruit, flowers and fluids, and the last series, Unnatural Selection, showcasing IVF embryos. To 17 Jan