The Islamic Museum of Australia's annual Australian Muslim Artists exhibition has launched online.

This year's iteration unites 17 shortlisted visual artists exploring spirituality, conflict, isolation and nostalgia in what has become an eagerly anticipated show in the Museum's calendar.

The exhibition has always been a valuable opportunity for emerging and established artists to share their work. But as Covid-19 continues to cripple the arts, the exhibition adopts a new significance. Australian Muslim Artists has helped inspire a local renaissance as the world turns to the sector for solidarity, connection and entertainment more than ever before.

Canberra-based creative, Fatima Killeen, has become the first female to win the $10,000 AMA Art Prize for her collograph print, The Crooked Narrative, thanks to the generous support of La Trobe University.

AMA Art Prize 2021 winning artwork, The Crooked Narrative, by Fatima Killeen. Photo: Islamic Museum of Australia.

Fatima's work critiques the idea of peacekeeping. In merging two seemingly polarising images—a man-made grenade and a pomegranate—Fatima reminds us of our connection to nature in search of peace and love. The work also comments on the paradox and tension between war and the desire to establish a common ground of co-existence and harmony.

"It's a work of great depth and complexity ... a worthy winner", says Prof. John Dewer AO, Vice Chancellor of La Trobe University.

Conflict was a popular subject for many artists this year. #SilentProtest by Marwa Charmand, The State of Palestine by Safa El Samad, and Dolls of War by Mirela Cufurovic confront viewers with the harrowing realities of hostility around the world. Closer to home, Hamza Rashid's graffiti-inspired illustration, Sultan Hamza, looks at the cyclical power struggles between different social and cultural groups in Western Sydney, New South Wales.

Marwa Charmand's charcoal drawing, #SilentProtest, raises awareness of the de-Islamicisation and displacement forced upon Ughyur Muslims in the Xinjiang Ughyur Autonomous Region in far-west China. Photo: Islamic Museum of Australia.

The exhibition successfully balances these sober topics with a refreshing optimism. Anisa Sharif presents an enlivening mosaic titled Sparking Joy - the language of colour, which immediately raises one's spirits through its Moroccan-inspired alcove flooded with a brilliant, vivid palette of glass shards. In his photograph of an 11-year-old Sudanese boy, Matthew Mahamoud, Yakub Ogunsina captures a playful and authentic spur of youthful innocence, reminding us to not always take things so seriously.

Detail of Yakub Ogunsina's photograph, Matthew Mahamoud. Photo: Islamic Museum of Australia.

Voting is currently open for the People's Choice Award. A $500, non-acquisitive cash prize will be awarded to the artist whose work receives the most public votes and announced at the end of the exhibition. All are invited to place a vote through the online form.

Australian Muslim Artists is on until 19 November 2021. View the exhibition online and in-person at the Museum when Covid-19 restrictions permit.