The sky broke when I was allowed to fly. / Se rompió el cielo cuando me dejaron volar.
A solo exhibition by Nicole Rademacher
LA Artcore
May 15th - June 14th
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 16th
120 Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
LA Artcore is pleased to present The sky broke when I was allowed to fly. / Se rompió el cielo cuando me dejaron volar., a multimedia solo exhibition by Nicole Rademacher, on view May 16 through June 15, 2026. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, May 16, from 5–7pm.
At the center of this exhibition is the word allow, pressed until it opens into author-ization. Who gets to claim a story, construct a history, call something their own? Who is recognized as the author? Rademacher is a Latina, born in the US and transracially adopted into a white family — separated from her paternal birth culture not by geography but by the terms of her adoption. The work does not attempt to reclaim what was lost. It claims what was never given.
“The exhibition moves through memory that arrives indirectly — through translation, family storytelling, fragments, and material stand-ins for places I could not access. aún sin título asks whether that process can be shared across other bodies. ”
— Nicole Rademacher
Developed over three years, including research trips to Monterrey, Mexico, where Rademacher connected with her paternal biological family for the first time, The sky broke when I was allowed to fly. brings together a 16-channel video installation, porcelain works, erasure drawings, single-channel video, an installation of burned and burning veladoras, and archive boxes resting on bricks lent from homes demolished in the 2025 Easton Fire. Sixteen suspended vellum screens carry footage recorded during Rademacher's visits to Monterrey, forming an immersive field of light and translation. Audio and image are intentionally out of sync, holding open the gap between what is seen and what is understood.
Ceramic works holding the missing profiles of her Mexican biological relatives, a series of twenty 11” x 14” erasure drawings, and a genealogical text (authored by her father’s cousin) integrated into the installation of veladoras burned and burning extend this inquiry of memory, inheritance, and what accumulates — and what cannot — when access is denied.
The sky broke when I was allowed to fly. is supported in part by the California Arts Council, Adoptees for Awareness, and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
Nicole Rademacher is a Board Certified Art Therapist (ATR-BC), Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), and interdisciplinary artist whose practice moves between multimedia installation, clinical work, and participatory sessions. Within the field of museotherapy, she has developed a somatic protocol that integrates deep looking at artwork with reflective art-making. She has implemented this protocol at LACMA, the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Getty Research Institute. The sky broke when I was allowed to fly. is her first solo exhibition.
aún sin título / still untitled
Sunday, May 17 , 2026 | 1–6PM | LA Artcore
aún sin título is not a program attached to this exhibition — it is a piece of it. Using Nicole’s own work as its point of departure, the project asks whether the somatic protocol she has developed — based in museotherapy — can be carried, altered, and extended by others. On May 17, the day after opening, Nicole and transdisciplinary artist traci kato-kiriyama lead a five-hour facilitated co-creation session inside the gallery for adults who have been disconnected from their cultural heritage, whether through adoption, foster care, immigration, displacement, or family silence. Participants move through a guided deep looking, somatic awareness practice, then respond through embodied writing and reflective art-making. They have been invited to bring their own fragments: photographs, documents, objects — anything that holds a piece of their story. Work made during aún sin título is installed and integrated into the exhibition for the remainder of its run. The exhibition shifts as other histories enter it.
