Jorge Cruz

Jorge Cruz is a transgender avant-garde artist.

In an interview with Camilo Rocha, Cruz described the forthcoming plans that zhe had with Trax Records. One of which included a prematurely signed single of Azari and III, which was never released on the label but ended up on their self-titled debut album, it was also released on Turbo Recordings. After Cruz became appointed the creative and public relations director at the label zhe has organized and curated notable projects such as the 25th Anniversary party – which was chosen by Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot as his "Top Weekend Choice" – a visual rebranding of the label, a 25th Anniversary mixtape mixed by Joe Smooth and has signed, released and produced singles from Little Boots, Nic Sarno and Sir Nenis. Jorge also curated the Trax Records: The 25th Anniversary Album which was released on October 18, 2011. The album itself was a new direction for the label as the songs on the LP were less known, darker and unlike the 20th Anniversary compilation which had 30 songs in it, only included 11 songs. Carol Cooper from the Village Voice, Fox News Radio and the NY Daily News heralded it as one of the fall's most anticipated releases.

After co-curating the Joe Smooth mixtape a new series of mixtapes appeared on what is now known as "monamiejorge†apes" which is hosted on bandcamp, the same site zhe chose to exclusively host Trax Record's entire catalogue. The series includes Jorge asking notable dj's to create a mixtape inspired by a theme or idea. Some mixtapes include a Johan Agebjörn tape, Mariam which was inspired by interspecies love and was released right before Johan Agebjörn's release of his Casablanca Nights release. Others include tapes by Don Rimini, My Panda Shall Fly, BeatauCue, Kim Ann Foxman and DJ White Shadow. Often the mixtapes were featured on URB.com, URB Magazine's digital space, also a place where zhe frequently contributed until Jorge's resignation in September 2011. Tapes have also premiered exclusively on Spin.com, and the Chicagoist.com.

Jorge has one completed series, "Untitled", which consists of portraits of zher mother and in which the mother is a representation of Cruz. Jorge is also working on a continuing body of work titled "Living @ Home". Aline Smithson of Lenscratch was one of the first people to interview Jorge about zher work. Quickly after zher work was featured on Lenscratch, Cruz's work also appeared on C-Monster, Regina Hackett's, art critic of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Another Bouncing Ball", and Feature Shoot.

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