Dimitris Giannoukakis was born in 1898 in Ermoupolis, Syros. He studied painting and engraving at the Dresden School of Fine Arts (1921 – 1927) and continued with independent studies in Paris (1929). He worked as artistic director at the Graphic Arts enterprise “Aspioti-Elka S.A.” in Corfu from 1930 to 1933.

He was particularly interested in copperplate and presented his work from the 1930s onwards in many solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad. He held a retrospective exhibition in 1966 at the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation and took part in the Pan-Hellenic Exhibitions of 1938 (receiving an award), 1939, 1940, 1948, 1952, 1957, 1960, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1973, and 1975, and in many international events including, the Exposition Internationale in Paris in 1937 (he was awarded), the Salon International d ‘Art Libre Paris in 1962 (he was awarded as well), and the Alexandria Biennale in 1963.

He also worked as a book illustrator and stamp engraver. Dimitris Giannoukakis died in 1991 in Athens. A large retrospective exhibition of his work was held posthumously at Iakinthos art gallery in Athens in 1992. He was a founding member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece, the Hellenic Society for Aesthetics and a member of the Federation of Graphic Arts Companies of Paris.