Duncan Hannah was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1952. He attended Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York before transferring to Parsons School of Design in New York, New York in 1975.

Hannah's solo and group exhibitions include "Flesh and Fantasy" at The Journal Gallery in Los Angeles, California (2024); “Duncan Hannah: On Paper” at Kasmin Gallery in 2023; Tennis Elbow at The Journal Gallery in New York, New York (2023); Althuis Hofland Gallery in Amsterdam, Netherlands (2023); Alon Seger Gallery in Tel Aviv, Israel (2021); Althuis Hofland Gallery in Amsterdam, Netherlands (2020); Saatchi Gallery in London, England (2019); Sam Parker Gallery in Los Angeles, California (2018); “Club 57” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, New York (2017); Invisible Exports in New York, New York (2017); Half Gallery in New York, New York (2017); and New Release Gallery in New York, New York (2016).

Work by Hannah is held in numerous public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, New York; the Whitney Museum of Art in New York, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois; the Minneapolis Institute of Art in Minneapolis, Minnesota; the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, North Dakota; the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia; the Grand Rapids Art Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan; and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 2011.

Duncan's journals, Twentieth Century Boy: Notebooks of the Seventies, were published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2018.

Duncan Hannah died in Cornwall, Connecticut in 2022.