Woodsy Bransfield's Watercolour Whistleblowers
22 April - 2 May 2026
Castor hosted by The Shop at Sadie Coles HQ. 62 Kingly Street, W1B 5QN
Wednesday - Saturday, 11 - 6pm
Images / Press Release
Mukesh
Watercolour and pencil on paper
20.5 × 28.5cm, 2026
Mukesh Kapila served as Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations in Sudan during the Darfur crisis. He publicly described the violence as ethnic cleansing and compared it to the Rwandan Genocide, breaking with diplomatic caution. His statements drew global attention to the scale of atrocities and pressured international response.
Jeffrey
Watercolour and pencil on paper
28.5 × 38.5cm, 2026
Jeffrey Alexander Sterling was arrested, charged, and convicted of violating the Espionage Act for revealing details about Operation Merlin (a covert operation to supply Iran with flawed nuclear warhead blueprints) whilst working as a CIA operative.
Katharine
Watercolour and pencil on paper
28.5 × 38.5cm 2026
Whilst working as a translator at GCHQ, Katharine Gun leaked a top-secret NSA memo in 2003. The document revealed a US-led effort to spy on UN diplomats to secure support for the Iraq War. Her prosecution under the Official Secrets Act was dropped, and the case became a defining moment in debates over the legality of the war.
Richard
Watercolour and pencil on paper
28.5 × 38.5cm, 2026
Richard M. Bowen served as senior vice president at Citigroup, who warned executives about widespread mortgage fraud. He reported that a majority of loans being purchased were defective and posed systemic risk. His ignored warnings later became emblematic of the
failures that led to the 2008 financial crisis.
Sibel
Watercolour and pencil on paper
28.5 × 38.5cm, 2026
Sibel Edmonds, a former translator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, raised concerns after 9/11. She alleged serious security breaches, translation backlogs, and possible intelligence cover-ups involving foreign operatives. Her case became one of the most controversial whistleblower disputes, involving extensive use of the state secrets privilege.
Chelsea
Watercolour and pencil on paper in artist’s frame
72 × 55 cm, 2026
Whilst working as a US Army intelligence analyst, Chelsea Manning, aged just 22 at the time, leaked hundreds of thousands of classified documents to Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks in 2010. The materials included the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs and the “Collateral Murder” video, exposing civilian casualties and opaque military practices. Her disclosures sparked global debate about war ethics, transparency, and the limits of state secrecy.
Reality Winner is Driven Away
Watercolour and pencil on paper in artist’s frame
64 × 47cm, 2026
Reality Winner (real name) was a contractor for the National Security Agency who leaked a classified report in 2017. The document detailed Russian cyber operations targeting US election infrastructure ahead of the 2016 vote. She was arrested shortly after and received one of the longest sentences ever imposed for an unauthorized disclosure to the press.
Marsha
Watercolour and pencil on paper in artist’s frame
72 × 55 cm, 2026
Marsha Coleman Adebayo, former policy analyst at the United States Environmental Protection Agency, exposed environmental racism tied to US corporate practices abroad. She revealed that US officials failed to act on toxic vanadium mining conditions affecting Black South African workers. Her case led to a landmark legal victory and contributed to the passing of the No FEAR Act protecting federal whistleblowers.
Woodsy Bransfield is a British artist , born in Coventry in 1987 and now lives and works in London. He is currently studying at the Royal Academy Schools. Recently solo exhibitions include: Pearl Clutchers, The Second Act, London, 2026; Hoping, Neven, London, 2023; The Chains that were Sold to me by an Algorithm, Palatial, 2022.
Hoping
I don’t know where my truth fits into
Post-truth if truth be told
We sit, not shocked by anything now,
And we watch “fake news” unfold
My mama says we’re gonna be fine
My papa says we’re screwed
I just kick back and plan a post-millennial future for two
My ma says social media is for The psychologically unwell
But hypernormalisation
As I’m sure you can tell
Oh it’s got me feeling
Hyper super swell
But I can’t hurry love
I’ll have to wait
Meanwhile I’ll put my faith into the state
And maybe we can follow a big dream
Somewhere, somehow
Put your little hands up to your neck
Sign your little name into the red
And now I’m teaching you, directly,
How to choke someone correctly
O’ peasant shut your pauper mouth
And accept your place in the rat race
It’s amazing what you can do when you are rich in the first place!
Now I’m hoping if I have a good heart
And two forms of ID
That maybe someone cares about me.
I’m not one to get hooked onto some paranoid conspiracy!
I stand by the government!
They care about me!
(Maybe someone cares about me…?)
Passport, driver’s license national identity card
Maybe someone cares about me
Proof of address any kind of utility bill; gas, water, internet, phone or leccy
Maybe someone cares about me
Sorry sir, can’t go any further without photo ID
Maybe someone cares about me
- W. Bransfield
Contact info@castor.gallery for all enquiries