As a sculptor he worked with clay,
fiberglass reinforced concrete, wood, bronze,
mild steel and, from 2000, stainless steel. Many of his works are outdoor sculptures; some are monumental. He produced
enamel paintings, having learned the technique from
Paolo De Poli of
Padua, Italy. His creative works were exhibited in national and international art exhibitions, including
Venice Biennale in 1982, Constructa-78 in
Hannover in 1978, Triennale India in New Delhi in 1975. Works by him are in the permanent collection of many museums. Balan Nambiar has extensively studied, photographed and documented hundreds of ritual performances and art forms of the Indian west coast as
Teyyam and
Bhuta. Articles and photographs by him are published in books. Around 1800 of his photographs have been acquired by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, New Delhi. He received awards both for creative works and academic research: India National Award in 1981 and
Karnataka State Award in 1980 of
Lalit Kala Academy (National Academy of Fine Arts) for his sculptures, Senior Fellowship of the India Ministry of Culture in 1982–83 and Nehru Fellowship of
Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund in 1983–85 for academic research, Academy Fellowship of the Kerala Lalitha Kala Academy in 2005 for creative works, Pravasi Kalaratna Fellowship of Kerala
Sangeetha Nataka Akademi in 2013 for painting. The
Government of Kerala awarded him the 2014
Raja Ravi Verma Puraskaram, the highest state award in the art category, in 2015.
National Gallery of Modern Art, Bangalore held the retrospective of six decades of work by Nambiar in February 2018, which was curated by Sadanand Menon He has been chairman of the Lalit Kala Academi, New Delhi, member of the General Council of Lalit Kala Academy, member of the Central Advisory Board on Culture, India. ==Major works==