Coming soon in visual art: Contemporary art at Tate Modern, Turner at the National Maritime Museum and Photorealism in Birmingham

First up, there’s change afoot at the heart of the art establishment: for while Tate Britain’s sister gallery Tate Modern wins more headlines these days, the former is asserting its own modernity as it unveils the result of a £45m refurb on 19 Nov. Meanwhile, its Painting Now showcase (12 Nov to 9 Feb) offers five contemporary artists’ takes on this most traditional of media.

Elsewhere, with many of the autumn blockbusters having bowed already, some smaller shows have space to shine. At the British Library, there’s Georgians Revealed (8 Nov to 11 Mar), exploring the revolution in everyday life between 1714 and 1830. At the National Maritime Museum, Turner and the Sea (22 Nov to 21 Apr) will look at the British great’s lifelong fascination with the drama of deep water while whetting the appetite for Mike Leigh’s upcoming Turner biopic. And the Royal Academy is putting on a retrospective for British sculptor Bill Woodrow (Royal Academy, 7 Nov to 16 Feb), whose upcycled pieces made him a key member of the New British Sculpture movement of the 1980s, alongside Anish Kapoor et al.

Outside the capital, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is offering Photorealism, a survey of American photorealist artists from the late 1960s (30 Nov to 30 Mar), while 2014’s Dylan Thomas Centenary gets off to an early start as the National Museum Cardiff presents Llareggub: Pop Art legend Peter Blake’s 25-years-in-the-making collection of illustrations of Under Milk Wood (23 Nov to 16 Mar).

And finally, cutting a dash are two big style exhibitions: Somerset House’s Fashion Galore (20 Nov to 2 March) looks at the life and wardrobe of the late, great eccentric Isabella Blow, while Hello My Name is Paul Smith (Design Museum, 5 Nov to 9 Mar) celebrates the career of the quintessentially British tailor. Just make sure to fix up and look sharp.