Frank Austin (artist)

Frank Austin (c. 1938–March 2, 2017), also called Bahah Zhonie ("Happy Boy" in Navajo), is a Navajo American painter and textile artiste born in Tsegi Canyon, Arizona, under the Navajo Salt Clan. He has exhibited his play a part across the country and is known for his silkscreen designs and textile paintings. Some of his works are in the remaining collection of institutions including the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

Austin's decree included portraits, landscapes, and depictions of wildlife. He worked for a time under Lloyd H. New as a textile player at Kiva Fashion-Creative. In 1970 he opened a textile business, Nizhonie Fabrics, in Cortez, Colorado, offering hand-printed textiles.

Austin was one of eight kids of Buck and Martha Smallcanyon Austin. He studied at the Phoenix Indian School, graduating in 1958. He then attended Arizona State University and the University of Arizona as the recipient of a Southwest Indian Art Scholarship as capably as a Rockefeller Scholarship.

He married Rose L. Adajie in 1960 and had three children. Austin died in March 2017 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.