In 2024, Dada Muse introduced a 'Surreal Poetry' category into their annual Art Prize - the winner to be decided by a public vote. First-place finishers are kept on permanent display at the gallery, available to view all year around, for free.
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2024 WINNER - "Launceston" by Catherine Phillips
"The poem - Launceston - exposes the dark underbelly of the city, disrupting the narrative of progress and prosperity, unmasking the contradictions which haunt its psyche and revealing the latent surreal topography of social dislocation."
Catherine Phillips is a Tasmanian-born artist and art teacher who has completed Masters degrees in Fine Art and Teaching and Bachelor degrees in Philosophy and Contemporary Art with Honours. In her younger years she studied poetry and creative writing with her lecturer esteemed local poet, the late Tim Thorne. For several years she wrote newspaper columns and contributed magazine articles.
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2025 WINNER - "adAd" by Bruce Penn
"I detest commercial advertising... Buy, buy some pie in the sky."
Bruce Penn is an artist and poet. He has published 6 booklets of poetry and drawings, a book of 100 drawings, and a spoken word CD.
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