No. 1 Northern is a large public art work in the form of a steel abstract sculpture by John Cullen Nugent, currently standing where it was originally installed in the fore court of the Canadian Grain Commission building in Winnipeg, in 1976. The work generated controversy from the moment it was unveiled, and even after its removal by ministerial order in 1978. In 1979, Meriké Wiler called it the most controversial piece of Canadian public art ever commissioned during the fourteen years of Canada's public art funding scheme. It was hauled away and cut into pieces on two occasions, before and after being installed in front of another federal government building, and finally reinstalled at its intended location once more in 1997, nearly twenty years after its removal.
