The Art of Jay Sims

Jay Sims is a video artist and experimental filmmaker whose work investigates memory, perception, and the slow erosion of images over time. Working primarily with moving images that resist linear narrative, his pieces are meditative and often haunting—composed like visual poems that linger in ambiguity and texture.

Sims draws from early avant-garde cinema, degraded media, and the aesthetics of still photography. His videos often inhabit a space between presence and disappearance, where signal noise, video artifacts, and analog degradation become expressive tools rather than errors. Whether using digital or analog formats—or blending the two—he treats the screen less like a stage for action and more like a surface for visual excavation.

Though originally from rural Arkansas, Sims has lived and worked in Texas for many years. He began making experimental shorts as a teenager, teaching himself editing and visual composition before moving into more collaborative and process-driven projects. Over time, his practice has shifted away from traditional storytelling toward a focus on mood, tone, and visual memory. This trajectory led to the formation of Lumina Obscura, the label under which he now produces and presents his work.

Influenced by media decay, obsolete formats, and the fragmented nature of memory, Sims’s videos are intended less as narratives and more as spaces to inhabit—quiet, unsettling, and open to interpretation. His work continues to explore the threshold where images begin to dissolve, where meaning is uncertain, and where time feels suspended..

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No part of this website or any artwork depicted herein may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the artist, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the artist at the email address provided on this site.