Velázquez, Christian Marclay and the Brighton Pavilion – the week in art

Jonathan Jones's top shows this week Ingrid Calame This American painter traces everyday surfaces – the bottom of a pool, a graffiti-marked canal – and incorporates their mottled information into delicate drawings and murals that are at once abstract and full of the world's echoes. • At Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 4 August until 9 October Mystics or Rationalists? Is conceptual art a cerebral questioning of language, or something more enigmatic? It is perhaps not quite such a new question as all that. Conceptual artists constantly flirt with the irrational and this exhibition brings together such poets and dreamers as Susan Hiller and Ceal Floyer . • At Ingleby Gallery , Edinburgh, 4 August until 29 October Thomas Houseago – The Beat of the Show Dryads and tree giants, grotesque beings out of a rustic Renaissance masque, populate this outdoor sculpture exhibition by a young British artist. The best of his works genuinely take you by surprise and open up vegetable empires of fancy. • At Inverleith House , Edinburgh, until 21 June 2012 The Northern Renaissance: Dürer to Holbein Edinburgh played a dramatic part in the Renaissance, with rebellions, wars, reformation zealots and glamorous queens. This exhibition of superb paintings by such northern Renaissance artists as Lucas Cranach could not have a more resonant setting. • At Queen's Gallery , Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, until 15 January Hans Schabus: Remains of the Day This Viennese artist has collected all his domestic rubbish over a year, catalogued and packaged it as art. Interesting, but hold your nose. • At Collective Gallery , Edinburgh, 5 August until 2 October Up close: artworks in detail Benjamin West, Alexander III of Scotland Rescued from the Fury of a Stag by the Intrepidity of Colin Fitzgerald, 1786 West was a painter of history on a grand scale and here the artist who portrayed The Death of Wolfe turns his attention to Scottish national legend. Over the top in size, sentiment and violence, this is a painting to make you stand and gawp. • At Scottish National Gallery , Edinburgh James Thornhill and Christopher Wren, The Painted Hall, 1698–1720s There's a nautical dream quality in the painted walls, illusory architectural details and vertigo-inducing ceiling pictures of this opulent dining hall for senior Royal Navy officers. Many of Britain's great sea battles were celebrated here in the age of Nelson. It survives as one of the most astonishing interiors in Britain, and a late masterpiece of the European baroque. • At Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich Christian Marclay, The Clock, 2010 Marclay's chronicle of time passing in cinema, with its coup of matching the times shown in classic film clips to the actual time as you watch it, has already become established as a modern classic and can be seen this summer in both Glasgow and Venice. • At British Art Show, Glasgow and Venice Biennale Velázquez, The Water Seller of Seville, 1618–1622 Feeling hot? I am writing this on a sweltering summer day, but spare a thought for the aged water seller whose grim dignity the young Velázquez portrayed. Beads of cold water on his huge ceramic water vessel, a blanket on his shoulders – this great painting takes you to the harsh world of the urban poor in scorching 17th-century Andalusia. • At Apsley House , London Royal Pavilion, Brighton, 1787-1823 The Prince Regent, who eventually became King George IV, was not popular, but then he did indulge his senses by building this ornate dream palace in Brighton with no thought for public opinion or the public good. Yet it does us good, for it is a citadel of beauty, the building as a flamboyant work of art , without function or respect for place, soaring away on a magic carpet of Arabian Nights escapism. A lovely sight if you are headed for the seaside. What we learned this week How the Secret Garden festival lost an island Why the project to rebuild the World Trade Centre site turned sour Why Hans Schabus emptied his dustbins to follow in Picasso's footsteps Why Robert Rauschenberg's art burned out Why John Hoyland's sun – or moon – burst paintings offer more than just warmth Image of the week Your art weekly Have you been to any of these shows? What have you enjoyed this week? Give your review in the comments below or tweet us your verdict using #artweekly and we'll publish the best ones. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook