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Going to work with Pele, Maradona and Zidane: Street artist transforms Northern Quarter office with mural

By Tim Hyde

Pele, Maradona and Zidane. Three of the beautiful game’s most iconic legends, and now a staple feature immortalised in graffiti at a Northern Quarter meeting room.

Inspired from a Louis Vuitton advert, renowned artist Akse’s new mural has transformed The LadBible’s plain meeting room.

Famed for his Breaking Bad murals that popped up across the Northern Quarter, Akse has built up a reputation of being one of the city’s finest street artists.

Akse said: “I collaborated with some guys to paint a mural in their office in the Northern Quarter and they wanted an iconic picture to be painted in their meeting room.


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“They initially preferred a Black and White picture of Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson and Michael Caine having some wine in a bar.

“I loved the colours and tones of this Annie Leibovitz, Louis Vuitton advert, but I thought there was a lot of warmth to it that would suit a meeting room.”

Taking more than 50 hours to complete, the artwork is now a unique feature of the conference room enjoyed by the LadBible team.

A spokesman from The LadBible said: “We wanted something for the meeting room and we are delighted with what Akse has created.
COOL CUSTOMER: Jack Nicholson immortalised in street art-style mural

“The players are just three legends of the game so everyone is happy.”

Across the room Akse has also finished a detailed portrait of Jack Nicholson, one of the most iconic male actors of all time.

French-native Akse’s Breaking Bad murals took Manchester by storm and the artists even received recognition from one of the actors Dean Norris, whose character he painted.

As well as receiving compliments from those who passed his murals, Akse has received commendations from people across the country via social media websites.

“The picture of the Heisenberg mural went viral online, it was picked up by Buzzfeed, Reddit, Imgur and the main street art community pages on Facebook and Instagram,” said Akse.

“So I gained a lot of exposure from it. Dean Norris actually acknowledged my portrait of Hank (his character as the DEA agent in the series) on Twitter. That’s a priceless reward.”


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Manchester is well known across the globe for its football heritage and the mural indirectly pays homage to the city’s sporting history

Akse added: “Manchester is internationally known for its music and football, so indirectly it has some relevance. I actually proposed a portrait of Cantona, but they were not all Manchester United fans in the office.”

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