Ely Raman’s wish to minimize the distance between art and the observer (which we know so well from galleries and museums) has been fulfilled in his creation of the OH Cards genre.
During Ely’s years of teaching art at Rutgers University in New Jersey, one of his preferred forms of expression was what he called “variable structures.” By 1975, that theme in his art had come together with his longtime passion for playing cards and laid the foundation for the original OH Cards deck. In a stroke of genius, Ely saw that the deck of card-sized paintings he’d created could be combined with word cards in the form of interchangeable frames for the painting cards, turning his deck of paintings into “variable structures” capable of constant change.
All the card-paintings, which fit into hands and pockets, make themselves available to endless combinations and invite their users to be participants in art, adding more levels of variation to their structure.
Ely also conceived of and painted the SAGA, MYTHOS and PERSONA cards. The painting of the PERSONITA cards became a co-creation with Marina Lukyanova, who had already painted COPE.
The OH Cards were a central feature in the lives of Ely and his wife, Joan Lawrence. Ely lived in Victoria, British Columbia, on Canada’s Pacific coast, until his death in 2007, at the age of 77.
