Just a stone’s throw from the vast Louise Blouin Institute in West London, lies an altogether more tiny, if equally bright white, gallery that concerns itself with contemporary art. Up four floors and down a corridor, the Houldsworth Gallery is currently showing 160 new works by the trio of North American tricksters collectively known as the Royal Art Lodge.

Each set of 10 paintings that make up the Learned Helplessness show are just two inches square, yet their typically dark, gallows humour manages to pervade the clinical space.

Only slightly bigger than matchboxes, it is almost inimaginable to think that all three artists, Michael Dumontier, Marcel Dzama and Neil Farber took turns to work on each little square. With one third of the Winnipeg-born outfit living in New York (Dzama), the unfinished pieces would often be sent from Canada to America ad nauseum before they ended up compiled in neat rows on the walls of the Houldsworth.

Though tiny, the works are not ineffective. They physically draw you in – you can't see them if you stand further than a few centimetres away, so you must leer into blood-thirsty images of mutilation and horror and shuffle sidelong to see more.

And, while many an average photograph has been rescued from its very mendacity by having been blown up to, say, the full the length of a gallery wall, these little works have not their size to fall back on. The safety net that is grandiose scale is absent, which means all the nasty (and some are very nasty) little pieces, fight for space as well as your attention.

There’s a kind of Brothers Grimm element to it all, as the artists use pastel colours to evoke childhood bliss before subverting images of ponies and cats, cakes, phones, sinks and other homely domestic ephemera to flip the notion of comfort on its head.

With each set priced the same (£3,500), one has to pick a favourite based on merit. It’s tough though.

I liked the ‘Blood Service’ series, which included ‘the international sign for bound and electrocuted’ and an ominous package wrapped with a bow entitled ‘infanticipating’.

But first prize goes to the ‘Please Give’ series. It featured a man in green overalls, drawn from his knee to his neck and his height written as: 6 ft 11 in. Only, he’s also holding a bloody knife in one hand and his own dismembered head in another, so the first height is crossed out and 5 ft 3 in written in its place.

Ha ha.

Another, more greeting card-like image poked fun at traditional domestic roles. A woman in a yellow dress and apron faces away from the viewer, and below her a heartless instruction reads ‘breathe deep, turn around and show them your terrible cake’.

The best individual picture in the show featured in the Tender Kisses series. A man in suit and hat looks up at a grizzly image of a skull looking down at him from the sky. It reads: ‘It was nice to put a face to the name’.

Well, it made me laugh.

The accompanying catalogue includes an enjoyable interview of the artists by Glasgow-based funny man, David Shrigley, who has a lot in common with the Royal Art Lodge.

Learned Helplessness is at the Houldsworth Gallery, Pall Mall Deposit until October 25, while the Royal Art Lodge’s Garbage Day 2007-08 is at the Bluecoat in Liverpool.