McNamara typically works in with sculpture, video and performance and describes his work as "under-your-bed" art and, more recently, image-heavy collaborative performances nicknamed "readymade choreography." Writer and critic Alex Fialho notes that the artist often uses "the stage as a medium in itself." He has held performances and exhibitions at Art Basel, The High Line, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, The Whitney Museum, MoMA P.S.1, and The Kitchen amongst other places. McNamara participated in the 2nd Athens Biennale in 2009 with a video work titled, "I Thought It Was You." The work featured two screens portraying the artist enacting a spontaneous dance alongside a Herbie Hancock recording. In 2010, the artist performed one of his most ambitious projects to date: “Make Ryan a Dancer.” Over the length of five months and under public scrutiny and surveillance, the artist took to the task of learning ballet, contact improvisation, and exotic dancing, amongst other dance styles, at MoMA PS1. McNamara's solo show at Elizabeth Dee gallery in 2012, "Still," transformed the gallery space into a chaotic trompe l'oeil photography studio. The studio included backdrops and props, found objects, set pieces and costumes, and rolling cameras overseen by the artist and assistants. The eerie and improvisational images invoked the surrealist impulses of artists Lucas Samaras and Jimmy DeSana. In 2013, McNamara was named the winner of Performa 2013’s Malcolm McLaren Award. Titled, "MEEM: A Story Ballet About the Internet," the thirty-one dancers and performance ensemble re-enacted various internet clips featuring George Balanchine, “West Side Story,” Janet Jackson, K-pop, and more. Curated by Piper Marshall, McNamara's 2015 show, "Gently Used," repurposed costumes from previous performances and gallery lighting into campy and ambitious sculptural and time-based works. Later that same year, McNamara collaborated with musician Dev Hynes for a one night-only performance, "Dimensions," that fused dance, soul, and opera into a kaleidoscopic meditation at the Perez Art Museum. In 2016, McNamara's re-purposed MoMA PS1 back into a choreographed school. Galleries and viewing spaces were emptied used as classrooms; performers acted as teachers, administrators, goths, preps, jocks, and cheerleaders. For part of the Works & Process series at the Guggenheim Museum in 2017, McNamara collaborated with John Zorn to re-stage a commedia dell'arte that included just under a dozen dancers, a jazz trio, an a cappella quartet, and the nooks and crannies of the museum space itself. Roberta Smith of the New York Times writes of McNamara's performances as an, "increasingly impressive transition from performance art to choreography." McNamara has a range of influences including dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham, composer John Zorn, artist Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, the Internet, New York's club kids, ballet, SAGE, science fiction, and more.
