Muriel Hasbun’s expertise as an artist and as an educator focuses on issues of cultural identity, migration and memory. Through an intergenerational, transnational, and transcultural lens, Hasbun constructs contemporary narratives and establishes a space for dialogue where individual and collective memory spark new questions about identity and place.

Hasbun is the recipient of numerous distinctions, including: the 2021-22 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist at Rutgers University, a FY21 AHCMC Artist & Scholar Grant, 2020 Sondheim and 2019 Trawick Prize Finalist, a 2019 Archive Transformed CU Boulder Artist/Scholar Collaborative Residency, Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards in Media (2019 and 2008) and in Photography (2015, 2012), CENTER Santa Fe 2018 Producer’s Choice and 2017 Curator’s Choice awards, a FY17 Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County Artist Project Grant, a 2014 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, the Howard Chapnick Grant of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund (2014); a Museums Connect grant of the U.S. Department of State and the American Association of Museums (2011-2012); Hasbun was, at the Centro Cultural de España in San Salvador (2016), and the Escuela de Bellas Artes in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (2010); the Corcoran’s Outstanding Creative Research Faculty Award (2007) and a Fulbright Scholar Grant (2006-2008).

Hasbun’s photo-based work has been internationally exhibited. Venues include: International Center of Photography, DePaul Art Museum (2023), Whitney Museum of American Art (2023, 2022); Houston Center for Photography, SWAB Barcelona, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Centro Cultural de España in San Salvador, Tufts University Galleries and University of Notre Dame (2022); Rutgers University, Filter Photo Festival, and RoFa Projects (2021); George Mason University, Brentwood Arts Exchange (2019), Turchin Center for Visual Arts, the Athenaeum (2018); Betty Mae Kramer Gallery, MICA Meyerhoff Galleries (2017); PINTA Miami and Civilian Art Projects (2016); American University Museum (2016, 2008); Centro Cultural de España in San Salvador (2016, 2015, 2006); Smithsonian American Art Museum (2013, 2011); the Maier Museum of Art (2012); Light Work, Mexican Cultural Institute (2011); the MAC-Dallas and Michael Mazzeo Gallery (2010); NYU’s Hemispheric Institute at the Centro Cultural Recoleta in Buenos Aires (2007); Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego (2007); Houston’s FotoFest (2006), Corcoran Gallery of Art (2004); 50th Venice Biennale (2003); Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City (1999); Musée de l’Arles Antique at the 29ème Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d’Arles (1998).

Similarly, her photographs are in numerous private and public collections, including the Art Museum of the Americas, D.C. Art Bank, En Foco, Lehigh University, El Museo del Barrio, International Development Bank, Smithsonian American Art Museum, University of Texas-Austin, Turchin Center for the Arts, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

Building upon her socially engaged art and teaching practice, Muriel Hasbun is the founder and director of laberinto projects, a transnational, cultural memory, and education initiative that fosters contemporary art practices, social inclusion and dialogue in El Salvador and its U.S. diaspora. She is professor emerita at the GWU Corcoran School of Arts & Design, and previously, professor and chair of photography at the Corcoran College of Art + Design.

Hasbun received a MFA in Photography (1989) from George Washington University where she studied with Ray K. Metzker (1987-88), and earned an AB in French Literature (1983), cum laude, from Georgetown University.