Artist Alexander Millar is closing his Newcastle gallery this summer, as he moves into a new phase of his career. This is not a farewell, but rather an evolution. Millar’s Glasgow gallery will continue to operate, a nod to his Scottish roots, and his work will remain widely available through online sales and pop-up exhibitions. Additionally, a “semi-retirement” sale will begin on 15 March, offering collectors a final chance to acquire artwork from the Newcastle gallery before it closes.
Known for his painting of the “Gadgie” character, which has captured the spirit of working-class life. Millar plans to step back from the daily demands of gallery management and focus more on his art.
The Gadgie is typically an older, working-class man, often dressed in a flat cap, heavy coat, and worn-out boots. His posture and movements—whether he’s trudging home after a long day, leaning against a lamppost for a cigarette, or wandering home from the pub, portray a quiet dignity and resilience. He represents a nostalgic stoicism, humour and resourcefulness of a bygone time that is fixed in many people’s memory.
Asked what the inspiration for the Gadgie was, Millar, originally from Kilmarnock, spoke of how it came from a difficult period of his life, losing his father to Parkinson’s disease: “It’s never an easy thing to watch your dad die, but I used to try and cheer him up by doing little drawings of the local men that we had in the wee village nearby. Just I made them do daft things like playing drunk and this and that, just to cheer him up”.
Millar says he found the development of the character helped him through those tough times.
“I was continuing to draw, and then they turned into paintings. It was just it was for myself, a cathartic thing for what I was going through. And all of a sudden everybody started wanting them. Everybody started to see their own dads and granddads and mums and themselves in the wee kids.
I used to do front views and back views, and we found out as time went on, the back views sold more because of the anonymity and that people adopted them as their own. It just allows people to see their own mums and dads”.
This universal appeal led to Millar holding a successful exhibition in Glasgow and being approached by a large fine art publishers and eventually led to him opening his own galleries in Glasgow, Newcastle and on 5th Avenue, New York. The New York gallery closed during the COVID pandemic leaving just the UK galleries and now he feels it’s time to make a change.
“I’m not retiring – I’m just slowing down a little,” Millar said. “The Newcastle Gallery has been an incredible part of my journey, but this change allows me to focus more on painting, spending time in Glasgow, and continuing to connect with people through pop-up exhibitions and online.”
In times of such rapid technological change and economic restructuring, the Gadgie’s image acts as both a critique and a celebration. The industrial communities he personifies have disappeared, but he is a celebration of the spirit to adapt to adversity. Millar’s paintings give people a chance to reflect on their own story, but also reflect on wider memories of community.
It’s too easy to classify this kind of work as cultural commodification or sentimental nostalgia. The Gadgie does not just have to be a symbol of the past; he is also a reminder of what remains. The values of hard work, loyalty, and community that defined the industrial age are still woven into the fabric communities such as his Glasgow origins or his north eastern home. Even as these regions move forward, with new industries and a changing landscape, it can remind us of where we come from and the people who built the world we now live in.
